Men Making Choices

For John, BLUF:  Men are making individually rational choices, but those choices are culturally bad.  We are acting like the Japanese or a number of other societies.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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8 Reasons Straight Men Don’t Want To Get Married

From The Huffingtn Post, by Dr Helen Smith, 20 August 2013.

Here is the lede plus one:

It seems that fewer and fewer people in general are getting married these days, and even fewer men seem interested.  Men no longer see marriage as being as important as they did even 15 years ago.  “According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997—from 28 percent to 37%.  For men, the opposite occurred.  The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent.” Why?

In the course of researching my new book, Men On Strike:§nbsp; Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream - And Why It Matters, I talked with men all over America about why they’re avoiding marriage.  It turns out that the problem isn’t that men are immature, or lazy.  Instead, they’re responding rationally to the incentives in today’s society.  Here are some of the answers I found.

These are the reasons listed:

1. You’ll lose respect.
2. You’ll lose out on sex.
3. You’ll lose friends.
4. You’ll lose space.
5. You could lose your kids, and your money.
6. You’ll lose in court.
7. You’ll lose your freedom.
8. Single life is better than ever.

This was 2013 and it isn't any different today.  While it may be a better society for those living it today, it is not a better society for the long term.  Out of wedlock birth rates alone tell us this.

Brookings Institution tells us:

Since 1970, out-of-wedlock birth rates have soared. In 1965, 24 percent of black infants and 3.1 percent of white infants were born to single mothers. By 1990 the rates had risen to 64 percent for black infants, 18 percent for whites.

This is not sustainable.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff