Chapter 77 Section 4 Family Misfortune

Clearly, the family is in some kind of crisis, and the question is what kind of crisis.Some claim that the family is changing without weakening.An extreme argument is that some of them regard any family, such as cohabiting homosexuals, as a "family" and believe that it should be recognized and respected by society like a couple with children.More people would argue that an unmarried couple living together in a "stable" relationship - who may or may not have children, who may or may not be married by then - should be treated the same .Undoubtedly, many more people will regard continuous monogamy, that is, couples who marry and divorce hastily, as only an "alternative way of life" (since the divorce law was revised in the 1960s , the divorce rate in the UK, like elsewhere in the West, is growing rapidly).Happily, there are still traditional families of father, mother, children and relatives.

As is often the case in profound social change, it is easier to discern specific, and somewhat disturbing, features than to see how they will respond together.For example, we may now be witnessing a long-term demographic shift with disastrous consequences.A decline in birth rates and an increase in life expectancy, which is a general feature of our times - which is by no means limited to, nor is it most pronounced in, England - will result in a smaller working population to support More, older people.Today, 65-year-olds are generally stronger, healthier and more able to stay in the workforce than their peers 50 years ago. They are indeed younger, and many, perhaps most, of them would like to stay on. work, angry at forcing them to retire.Ultimately, new social arrangements will have to reflect this, including raising the pension age.By then, UK pensions and other benefits will be based not on "funding" but on "income tax withholding", which means that the burden on working people will at some point be significantly higher.How they will react is still unknown.

Much of the public attention to demographic change, however, has focused on the issue of teenage single parents.This is understandable, because this "lifestyle" is particularly irresponsible. It not only puts a heavy burden on the taxpayers, but also is relatively poor, without father's guidance, which is very unfavorable to children's growth. Furthermore, this is a growing problem.In the UK, the proportion of single-parent households with dependent children among all households with dependent children has almost doubled since 1976.Of course, this group includes widows, divorced people, and abandoned single mothers or fathers, as well as the focus here—those who have never married.Needless to say, although the circumstances of these single-parent families are superficially similar, the reasons for their formation are very different and, as we shall see, the responses required to deal with them are therefore also very different.To sum it up in too simple a sentence, widows with children need financial help, and so do those who have never married—and a change of perspective.

Having said that, the number of single fathers or mothers, while growing, still does not fully reflect the problem.Single mothers tend to be concentrated in either one area or one racial minority.In this case, it is unrealistic to talk about relying on grandparents or "extended family".For in a narrower district there may be no older married men at all.In such cases, not only are the children raised without fatherly guidance, but there are also no concerned, responsible men around to protect the dispossessed children, to perform informal functions of social management, or to provide Responsible parent role model.The result is graffiti on walls etc., drug trafficking, vandalism and organized gangs, and the police can do nothing about it.And there's the financial cost (nearly 1 million of the UK's 1.3 million single parents are on welfare, costing the taxpayer £6.6 billion a year.

Charles Murray sees the marked rise in illegitimate births as an important harbinger of problems to come.The rate of extramarital births has more than doubled in the past 10 years, accounting for one in every three live births.Nothing like it has ever been recorded in British history.All this cannot be explained by urbanization alone - which is a broad explanation or excuse for the depravity of most behaviours, because in Victorian England the greatest changes occurred in urbanization, while private Birth and crime rates actually fell.Attempts are sometimes made to minimize the significance of this change by pointing out that three-quarters of children born outside wedlock today are registered by their biological parents, which can indicate that children were born in stable families.But the first thing a young child needs is complete confidence that their parents are always there for them.If neither parent has committed enough to each other to register the marriage, it should not be surprising if the child doubts that they are committed to him.Children's capacity for comprehension develops much faster than many adults realize.

Treat family structure the same way you would treat crime and welfare dependency issues.Decisions must be made on the basis of an analysis of known facts.These analyzes do not show that families everywhere are pulling back, that most young people are criminals, or that those who are means-tested on welfare have the idea of ​​being dependent on welfare.Contrary to what the liberal left imagines, most children still live in traditional families, most are married, and most of them have children.In fact, during the past thirty years, amidst the adversity of public opinion and the benign fiscal stimulus, the vitality of the family has demonstrated more than any amount of philosophy, theology, or social theory that it is the natural and fundamental unit of society.But this is no grounds for complacency.

In a society as a whole, behavioral change may be limited and manageable, but in small communities, it may be dangerous and have a large impact.It is hard to say whether a capitalist economy and a free society will continue to function if a large minority flouts the rules and norms that everyone else is following morally, legally, and administratively, and it is now clear that we are heading towards Moving rapidly in the wrong direction.