Fewer than 50% of U.S. Adults Are Now Married. It’s Time to Give More Legal and Financial Breaks to Single People, Law Professor Says
Excerpts:
By Zoe Han
The share of married Americans has fallen to 45%, down from 50% in 2015.
…The share of married Americans has fallen to 45%, down from 50% in 2015. At the same time, the share of Americans who are not in a romantic relationship rose to 37% from 32% over the same period.
…However, people most likely to benefit from state and federal subsidies — joint bankruptcy filings, and tax and immigration laws — live in “traditional” households, typically consisting of a husband, wife and children, Mechele Dickerson, law professor at the University of Texas, Austin, wrote in (Link): her recent paper published in Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal.
…U.S. legal and economic systems favor married people, particularly upper-income, college-educated couples who are white, because that’s the demographic more likely to belong to the “traditional” married household, Dickerson said.
But fewer people are choosing traditional nuclear families. “That’s just not the way American society looks anymore,” she told MarketWatch. “It’s one thing to say that’s what we think life should be, and [another thing to say] what life actually is.”
Indeed, from 1970 to 2016, the share of dual-income families rose to 66% from 49%, according to the Pew Research Center a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.
…At the same time, American adults are marrying later. The median age for a first marriage increased by 7 years in age for both men and women over five decades, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In the 1960s, it was 23 years of age for men and 20 for women; in 2016, that estimate rose to 30 for men and 28 for women.
All of these factors have a knock-on effect on people’s finances. It takes young people 10 more years to locate a good job that pays around $57,000 a year compared to the generation 20 years ago, a separate Georgetown University report concluded. Today, people are in their mid-thirties before reaching that salary. This affects everything from purchasing a car and a home to getting married.
…Given the demographic shift away from traditional marriage, Dickerson told MarketWatch that the legal, financial and tax systems in the U.S. should pay equal breaks to single people and nontraditional households. She also noted that marriage does not necessarily guarantee the satisfaction and well-being of a person, either financially or emotionally.
“We assume that they will be happy marriages,” she said. “And we assume that they will be self-sufficient marriages.”
The hard reality of married life for millions of Americans, she added, (Link): does not always bear that out.
Related:
(Link): Four in 10 Adults Between the Ages of 25 and 54 are Single, Up From 29% in 1990
(Link): Nearly 4 in 10 American Adults Live Without Spouse or Partner As Single Population Grows: Pew
(Link): False Christian Teaching: “Only A Few Are Called to Singleness and Celibacy”
(Link): The Nuclear Family Was A Mistake – by David Brooks – and Related Links
(Link): I Married Young. I Was Widowed Young. I Never Want A Long-Term Partner Again by R. Woolf
(Link): Unmarried and Childless Women Are the Happiest, Happiness Expert Claims (2019 Study)
(Link): American Romance Standards Are Changing as People Have Less Sex and Marriage Rates Drop
(Link): Household Liturgies (by Jonathan Storment) – Turning Marriage and the Nuclear Family Into Idols
(Link): Fewer Americans Think Marriage is Needed To Create Strong Families, New Poll Suggest
(Link): Survey Reveals Singles Over 50s Can Still Be A Good Catch
(Link): Woman Told She Can’t Dine Alone: ‘Next Time Bring A Friend’
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