By the end of the 1990s, it had leveled off at 70 percent among blacks, yet still rises among whites. Now a senior public policy scholar at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the New York Democrat finds marriage rates are dropping among parents throughout the industrialized world. This alarms politicians. I favor programs that help parents get married and stay married, if the programs help reduce poverty. In poor communities here or abroad, people turn to each other for survival largely because they have to.
Neighbors help neighbors.
The young support their elders. Parents watch out for their children. As economies and government support to the needy become stronger, Moynihan has observed, the consequences of irresponsible behavior decline. Families become more mobile. Communities break apart.