And we wonder why marriage is disappearing in low-income communities. All of this wouldn't matter if marriage didn't matter. But it does. And not just a little. It matters a lot.
Children fare much better when raised in a married, intact, two-parent household.
In addition, research indicates that both married men and married women are happier, healthier, and wealthier than their unmarried counterparts. Furthermore, the best indicator of the violent crime rate in a community is not race, ethnicity or even income, but the prevalence of marriage. And marriage is the glue that binds fathers to their children. Not a perfect glue, but a better glue than either cohabitation or child support enforcement. But, many shrug, its too late to do anything about all of this.