Women agree to live together in hopes that it is a step toward marriage, while men do so for the easy access to sex. My Valentine's Day advice to such women is to move out. Americans are moving in the opposite direction. In 1960, only 430,000 couples lived together. That figure has soared ten-fold to 4,236,000 by 1998.
Young people see no harm in that trend.
Indeed, the report says nearly 60 percent of high school seniors think it is a good idea to live together before getting married. Yet as more cohabit, fewer get married. The marriage rate has plunged 41 percent in the same time. Thus, cohabitation is a double cancer of marriage. It has diverted tens of millions from getting married.