NOM BLOG

"Here's a Secret -- Marriage is America’s Most Effective Anti-Poverty Program"

 

Sheila Weber is the executive director of National Marriage Week USA and writes in FoxNews:

In spite of other disagreements, there is one aspect about marriage that both the left and the right can find to agree on.  Marriage is a valuable anti-poverty program.

The Brookings Institution says that if we had the marriage rate today that we had in 1970, there would be a 25 percent drop in poverty.  The Heritage Foundation says that marriage drops the probability of a child living in poverty by 82 percent.

This week we focus on Valentine’s Day; and while a celebration of romance is great, we should also celebrate marriage as a valuable culmination of romance, because it’s not just about love, but ultimately about providing a better life for the children of America.

... Let’s start a movement where more and more Americans seek out relationship education and marriage enrichment classes as often as we seek out other forms of self improvement such as home renovation, book clubs, grooming, fashion, décor, or cooking.

If we can change the public’s thinking and habits on recycling, smoking, exercise and healthy eating, how much more does America need a campaign to improve the public’s thinking and actions about the benefits to our country of encouraging healthy marriage?

5 Comments