Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust
Is marriage as an institution destined to go the way of the dinosaurs? According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of Americans under 30 believe marriage is "heading for extinction." The strange part is that of that 44 percent, only 5 percent don't want to get married. Interesting, albeit depressing, numbers. The rest of the poll isn't any more hopeful. Forty percent of those surveyed in general agreed that marriage is "obsolete."
From a
Time Magazine story on the Pew poll:
This fall the Pew Research Center, in association with TIME, conducted a nationwide poll exploring the contours of modern marriage and the new American family, posing questions about what people want and expect out of marriage and family life, why they enter into committed relationships and what they gain from them. What we found is that marriage, whatever its social, spiritual or symbolic appeal, is in purely practical terms just not as necessary as it used to be. Neither men nor women need to be married to have sex or companionship or professional success or respect or even children — yet marriage remains revered and desired.
And of all the transformations our family structures have undergone in the past 50 years, perhaps the most profound is the marriage differential that has opened between the rich and the poor. In 1960 the median household income of married adults was 12% higher than that of single adults, after adjusting for household size. By 2008 this gap had grown to 41%. In other words, the richer and more educated you are, the more likely you are to marry, or to be married — or, conversely, if you're married, you're more likely to be well off.
To read more on the Pew study, click HERE. For the Time article, click HERE. And then let us know what you think is behind this view of marriage as an obsolete institution headed for extinction.
