There was a very good reason why I posted this. You see we had a nice little debate the other day about illegitimacy and its rise over the last 40 years. Now, I would argue that a generation of people have been brought up to believe that there are ZERO consequences to their actions.
Ah. I did not understand your first posting to be a serious entry into the discussion of why there are more single-parent households than in the past. Perhaps it was the way you phrased it.
While I am no expert, from what I've read, it has some to do with economics - women tend not to marry men who can't get jobs, but the women still want to be parents. There also is more societal acceptance of it these days; women aren't shunned for it. The govt benefits aren't all that generous and there is a limit to the amount you get regardless of how many kids you have; so that isn't a major reason but yes, I'm sure some people choose to stay unmarried for the benefits. But it is a complicated situation and there are many reasons for it. My sister is a single mom; it was NOT for the benefits - she's working, doesn't get any.
And then there are the people like Shaw and the Octomom who are just morons (in my opinion). Of course, there are the mormon fundamentalist families - the men "marry" multiple women within their church but then, because to the state the women are single mothers, they get govt benefits they wouldn't be eligible for if they were married. That probably can be considered a unique situation.
Some things we can do if we want to encourage two parent households; we need to improve the job market for African American men; we need to look at a justice system that jails so many of them out of proportion to their % in the population - and that jails them more for crimes than it does whites for those same crimes. And yes, same sex marriages will help as well, although that's probably a small proportion of single family households. Oh and we should look at benefits so people aren't ding'd for getting married.
I've posted below a chart I found in terms of single parent households by race.
http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.aspx?ind=107
American Indian 53%
Asian or Pacific Islander 17%
Black or African American 67%
Hispanic or Latino 42%
Non-Hispanic White 25%
Two or More Races 42%
Total 35%
