Marriage increasingly reserved for the wealthy

A recent On Point program on WAMU 88.5 FM explored the growing gap in marriage rates between lower and upper income Americans.  It seems that while the total number of divorces in this country is on the decline, there is a disturbing increase in divorce among low-income couples.  At the same time, upper-income people are much more likely to marry than low-income people.  “We are now a country where a huge portion of the affluent marry, and a huge portion of the poor do not,” On Point host Tom Ashbrook said.  Ashbrook went on to point out that major trends like this aren’t easily or quickly reversed.  Go here to listen to the program:  http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/05/20070531_a_main.asp

To me the implications are both numerous and ominous:  children of divorced low-income parents are dramatically less likely to attend college, and unmarried households are at a much greater risk for economic peril as the result of a job loss, a health concern, a lack of affordable day care, etc.

My question then is this:  How do we develop programs in the public and private sectors that support low-income families, but at the same time do not punish low-income people who do not marry or who get divorced? 

One of the most heated debates over the last decade has been the move to promote public policy that “incentivizes” marriage at the expense of those who aren’t married.  Isn’t it possible to do one, without the other?  If implemented, I think that the recommendations to strengthen families and marriage in the Catholic Charities USA Policy Paper “Poverty in America:  A Threat to the Common Good,” would begin to accomplish this goal – without pitting the married against the unmarried and divorced.  Public policy that is just shouldn’t lift up one group at the expense of another.  A basic tenant of Catholic social teaching is the dignity and equality of all, without exceptions.  Read about Catholic Charities USA’s suggestions here:  http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/poverty/downloads/policy06.pdf

Post submitted by Brian Stevens, Manager Parish Social Ministry Training