OPINION:
On the final day of 2024, Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies issued a report for The Heritage Foundation on the decline of marriage in society over the past several decades and how our society is finally beginning to wake up to greater societal problems created by a society that been slowly discarding what he calls our “keystone institution.”
This is in stark contrast with comments from some on the left and right, as Mr. Wilcox points out, that have deemed marriage as detrimental to both men and women. Nothing could be further from the truth. When marriage becomes devalued, the ramifications go beyond individuals.
One of those problems is our declining birth rates, which, if left unchecked, will lead our nation to what has been dubbed “demographic winter,” as documented in a Congressional Budget Office report showing how, by 2033, there will be more deaths than births in America — putting our nation in not only a zero population replacement rate but also in a demographic death cycle.
This alarm is not happening only in America. North of the border, in their recent book, “I … Do: Why Marriage Still Matters,” Peter Jon Mitchell and Andrea Mrozek of the Canadian think tank Cardus link the devaluing of marriage with declining birth rates — with devastating consequences for the future.
But the problem goes beyond the lack of children. As Mr. Wilcox writes, numerous studies show that a married society is a happier society because marriages bring people together and give them a purpose beyond themselves. It is not a coincidence that as marriage has declined, we have become more divided as a society.
This is even acknowledged by those on the political left. Commenting on research that shows how marriage positively benefits children, Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution, says, “The short answer is that marriage still matters. And depending on what metric you examine, marriage can matter a lot.”
She continues, “The finding that children who are born to married parents tend to enjoy better life outcomes is consistent with existing research that has established that children who grow up in two-parent homes are more likely to graduate from college and work and are less likely to have children young, be depressed, be convicted for committing a crime, or end up poor as adults on average.”
Marriage plays an important role in our country’s economic well-being. When politicians, activists and social commentators talk about inequality, they often leave out the critical role that married parents play in keeping children above the poverty line. As the Census Bureau data documents, there is plenty of evidence that the breakdown of marriage, and thus the family, is the primary reason the gulf between the “have-nots” and the “haves” continues to widen.
For example, the Census Bureau data shows that the bottom economic half of society are children born out of wedlock or living in a single-parent home.
Finally, as deaths start to outpace births, there will be ever-increasing pressure on programs such as Social Security, Medicare and pensions, with not enough people paying into the system to cover the expenditures going out.
This is already happening. It is now estimated that the Social Security trust funds, which rely on having enough younger individuals pay into them to pay for the benefits of those retiring, will run dry by 2034, resulting in retirees having their benefits cut by at least 20%.
For all these reasons, it is essential that we restore marriage to its rightful place as the “keystone institution” in our society. Thankfully, the voices I mentioned earlier in this piece, whether American or Canadian, understand this. Unless we do so, our “zero hour” will rapidly be upon us and the societal issues we already face with the decline of marriage will only increase.
For all members of society to thrive — whether it be those at the beginning of life or those nearing its end — marriage and family provide a societal “safety net” that the government tries but ultimately fails to deliver because money will not solve the problems I have described.
Only marriage, along with giving birth to succeeding generations, will sustain our society over the long haul. Hopefully, that realization is finally beginning to take hold, not just in society but in academia as well. It truly is our “keystone institution.”
• Timothy S. Goeglein is vice president of government and external relations at Focus on the Family in Washington and author of the book “Stumbling Toward Utopia” (Fidelis, 2024).
Please read our comment policy before commenting.