OPINION:
Dear Dr. E: The American economy is a mess. Few could argue otherwise, at least with a straight face. Inflation is out of control. Our national debt is unsustainable. Social Security is teetering on bankruptcy. Homeownership is out of the question for millions of young people. Credit card debt is unbelievable. The list could go on and on. Is there any one specific thing you believe our national leaders should do that would rescue America from the economic trainwreck that seems inevitable? — REALISTIC AND WORRIED WORKING MAN FROM ALABAMA
Dear Realistic: We should be doing dozens of things to get our nation’s fiscal house in order, but one thing would clearly have the most significant impact: a return to healthy families.
According to the Pew Research Center, American Community Survey (ACS), and Decennial Census data, less than half of the kids in the United States live at home with mom and dad. Only 46% of children in the U.S. under the age of 18 live in a home with two married heterosexual parents who are in their first marriage. In 1960, that number was 73%.
Many of our socioeconomic issues are directly linked to the health of the family structure. Suppose the family structure falls in any civilization. In that case, the number of married couples decreases, economic mobility decreases, median family income decreases, child poverty increases, racial tension increases, and educational tensions increase. The success of an economy is directly related to the stability of the family structure. You cannot have one without the other. Eric Cochling of the Georgia Center for Opportunity says, “To reinvigorate opportunity in America, we must start by restoring the health and vitality of the American family. Nothing less will do.” If the family falls, so does the economy.
Many economic recovery programs fail because they lack a focus on family health. The restoration of the married, two-parent family must be the centerpiece of American life for us to enjoy a successful economy and for our society to thrive. It is no coincidence that the English term economy originates from the Greek word oikos, which means household.
Social science data and demographic and tax data confirm intact families are more productive than any other type of living or household arrangement. Married, two-parent families work more. They earn more. They save more. They are more likely to qualify for a mortgage. They pay more in taxes. They are more likely to start and invest in a new business enterprise. They give more to charity. They volunteer more. They even vote more. They raise, on average, more children, the future lifeblood of any economy. And their children are more likely to attend and graduate from college, marry, and, like their parents, raise productive children.
SEE ALSO: Ask Dr. E: What is the one thing American parents must focus on in this moment in time?
Federal welfare expenses have increased exponentially and in direct proportion to the decrease in our nation’s number of healthy families. According to the Heritage Foundation, welfare programs cost federal and state taxpayers over $900 billion annually, enough to award every three-person household living under the poverty level $50,000. Over the next ten years, Heritage claims federal welfare spending will exceed $10 trillion. The bulk of this money gets spent to compensate for the disadvantages that stem from children being raised in broken, fatherless homes and women bearing these children outside the protective bonds of marriage.
Even the future Social Security and Medicare deficits are related to a retreat from family life. Thanks to abortion and federal “family planning,” we have fewer taxpayers to share the economic load. Even the Social Security actuarial tables concede this, claiming projected deficits are caused “not because we are living longer, but because [average] birthrates have dropped from three to two children per woman.”
Gary Becker, Nobel-prize-winning economist and economic expert on the family, was prescient when he said, “No discussion of human capital [and economic productivity] can omit the influence of families on their children’s knowledge, skills, values, and habits. Parents have a large influence on the education, marital stability, and many other dimensions of their children’s lives.” Adam Smith said essentially the same thing in The Wealth of Nations: “The most decisive mark of the prosperity of any country is the increase in the number of its inhabitants,” which he linked to “a numerous family of children.”
We don’t need a bigger government to solve these problems; we need a recovery of public policies that allow families to flourish again. If we really want to solve the many problems, financial and otherwise, facing our nation today, we should stop growing the federal government and put our trust instead in the first and most basic unit of self-government—the family.
If you are seeking guidance in today’s changing world, Higher Ground is there for you. Everett Piper, a Ph.D. and a former university president and radio host, takes your questions in his weekly ’Ask Dr. E’ column. If you have moral or ethical questions for which you’d like an answer, please email askeverett@washingtontimes.com and he may include it in a future column.
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