Fox News
Expand
Browse All Video
Watch Live

You're watching...

Marriage the best defense against poverty?

Details

  • Description

    Why 2-parent households reduce poverty levels

  • Duration 3:28
  • Date

Clips

Also in this playlist...

Latest News

Auto-advance: ON

Auto-advance
View All

Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated

You Brian will marriage in America is on the declined due to reasons such as a high divorce rate co habitation and high rates of out of wedlock births but.

Doesn't -- -- marriage also lead to higher poverty rates.

Joining me now -- -- Weber executive director of national marriage week USA.

She would now be deceived him.

Thank you read to the stats because I think these are going to surprise a lot of people.

If you do these things if you gradually from high school.

If you work full time and if you marry after the age of 21.

You only have a 2% chance of living in poverty.

That's amazing because when you look at those three things not that tough to a -- It is amazing and we want to get the message out that marriage is sort of the unsung anti poverty program and and I think that both the left and the right can come together even though they disagree on many other issues.

Come together about marriage.

Being a solution for poverty in fact the heritage and the Brookings institution's both have something to say The Heritage Foundation says.

That -- a child lives with both he is married parents his chance of poverty drops by 82%.

And the Brookings Institution says that if we have the same marriage rates today that we had in 1970 we would have 25%.

Less poverty.

Because in 1970.

We had almost 80% of adults in this country who were married which is amazing today that has dropped down to only 52%.

So that's a huge falloff in the practice of marriage so let's take a look at what the flip side of that first figure it.

If you don't do those three things that I talked about you have a 77%.

Chance of living.

In poverty what does that say for the future of our -- -- well we really want to get the message out that we need to.

-- value marriage I think we've sort of thought of that as something disposable these states.

And that's not to say that there are people who are doing the very best they can in the circumstances they've been given it's not about making anyone feel guilty about where do we go from here.

We would like to help people find more success.

In having great marriages and also realize it's all about the child this is the most from advantaged place.

This is the best place to give children their damages you say these are America's marriage problems loss of marital skills the current generation doesn't know what a healthy marriage looks like -- -- Pop culture and I think.

This has so much to do that because we -- -- you know all of these stars and in fact my own child to say to me mommy how did have a baby they're not married.

Well it's it's unfortunate that we have this celebrity culture of -- parents who are -- something that makes it very difficult.

For people who live paycheck to paycheck.

And I think they're sending a message that is not helpful for the regular.

American because marriage is falling off a cliff in working class and lower class America it is hurting our families.

To have this decline of marriage.

You know it's really about the children and we know research is overwhelming that children perform better in school have less trouble with a lot less teen pregnancy and less addiction now.

If they can be raised with both their parents that's a whole another set of criteria much less just the financial ones that we started with with regard to poverty.

It's such an interesting analysis Sheila -- the executive director of national -- -- USA thanks for your thoughts thank you for having.

Load More