Biden is driving families apart The fates of families were dividing along demographic lines even before the COVID pandemic made the division worse. That is the core finding of a new study this week by the American Enterprise Institute, the Institute for Family Studies, and Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute.
he family structures of different demographic groups have been diverging for decades. People with lower incomes and less education have been marrying less and having fewer children. When they do have children, they are more often raised by unwed parents. Wealthy Americans with more education are also more likely to get married and more likely to have children, and those children are more likely to be raised in married households.
The desire to marry increased generally during the pandemic; people still want emotional and physical intimacy. But the pandemic accelerated existing patterns. Low-income single adults expressing a desire to marry increased by two percentage points, but the jump was nine points among higher-income single people. Overall, just 45% of lower-income single people say they want to get married compared to 60% among those with high incomes.
The desire to have children fell by 7% overall, but the drop was 11% among those with low income, and there was a 1% rise among high-income adults. Among Democrats, the desire for children fell by 12%, while among Republicans, it rose 1%.
A nation that cannot produce its next generation is a dying nation. And although the dream of a growing family is still alive for those with the greatest means, it is fading for the less affluent. The pandemic inspired a slightly higher percentage of single, low-income adults to seek marriage, but they are still the minority.
President Joe Biden's agenda will make it harder for the poor to marry and start families. Payments to parents are lower if those parents are married. Biden's proposed Medicaid and Affordable Care Act expansions also make it harder to afford marriage. His child care subsidies would not punish low-income parents, but there would be big marriage penalties for middle- and high-income families. .....................
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