The crucial thing is to change the default setting of our culture which tells people that all lifestyles are equally beneficial to everyone.
The truth is that they are not.
"At the very heart of this report, however, lies the issue of the fractured family which Mr Duncan Smith has correctly identified as the foundation of our social problems.
It is family fragmentation which is fuelling crime, drug and alcohol abuse, educational failure, worklessness, mental and physical ill-health and teenage pregnancy. And at the core of this issue lies the progressive and systematic undermining of marriage.
This is why the State must privilege married people over other types of household. It is not a question of 'moralising', or being beastly to lone parents.
It is simply worse than absurd for the State to subsidise family fragmentation and the billions of pounds of social damage that it causes.
It is also not enough to provide incentives for all two-parent households, since cohabiting partnerships break up more than twice as often as married couples. The rise and rise of cohabitation has been the rocket fuel behind our accelerating disaster of mass fatherlessness.
Already, the usual suspects are cranking out the tired refrain that the State must not penalise needy lone parents. But it has hugely penalised needy married parents for years. A couple with children would have to work 100 hours a week more than a single parent with the same number of children to receive the same amount of disposable income.
While it is certainly true that there are a great many lone mothers who do a wonderful job of raising their children alone, lone parents are undoubtedly among the least able to cope with life.
And unforgivably, loading the financial dice so heavily in favour of lone parenthood has sucked many more people into such misery.
Of course, encouraging marriage is about more than financial incentives. We should also be providing advice networks before and after marriage to challenge couples' impossible expectations of each other, which turns every marital setback into an insurmountable hurdle.
The crucial thing is to change the default setting of our culture which tells people that all lifestyles are equally beneficial to everyone.
The truth is that they are not. Marriage protects not just children but men and women. Fragmented family life does not. It is a misfortune to be avoided."
Related Link: Social Suicide Hat tip: A reader! Thanks.
The truth is that they are not.
"At the very heart of this report, however, lies the issue of the fractured family which Mr Duncan Smith has correctly identified as the foundation of our social problems.
It is family fragmentation which is fuelling crime, drug and alcohol abuse, educational failure, worklessness, mental and physical ill-health and teenage pregnancy. And at the core of this issue lies the progressive and systematic undermining of marriage.
This is why the State must privilege married people over other types of household. It is not a question of 'moralising', or being beastly to lone parents.
It is simply worse than absurd for the State to subsidise family fragmentation and the billions of pounds of social damage that it causes.
It is also not enough to provide incentives for all two-parent households, since cohabiting partnerships break up more than twice as often as married couples. The rise and rise of cohabitation has been the rocket fuel behind our accelerating disaster of mass fatherlessness.
Already, the usual suspects are cranking out the tired refrain that the State must not penalise needy lone parents. But it has hugely penalised needy married parents for years. A couple with children would have to work 100 hours a week more than a single parent with the same number of children to receive the same amount of disposable income.
While it is certainly true that there are a great many lone mothers who do a wonderful job of raising their children alone, lone parents are undoubtedly among the least able to cope with life.
And unforgivably, loading the financial dice so heavily in favour of lone parenthood has sucked many more people into such misery.
Of course, encouraging marriage is about more than financial incentives. We should also be providing advice networks before and after marriage to challenge couples' impossible expectations of each other, which turns every marital setback into an insurmountable hurdle.
The crucial thing is to change the default setting of our culture which tells people that all lifestyles are equally beneficial to everyone.
The truth is that they are not. Marriage protects not just children but men and women. Fragmented family life does not. It is a misfortune to be avoided."
Related Link: Social Suicide Hat tip: A reader! Thanks.