The Decline in the Belief About the Institution of Marriage Did Not Cause Economic Stagnation in the Working Class - Essay Example

The Decline in the Belief About the of Marriage Did Not Cause Economic Stagnation in the Working Charles Murray believed that whenthe middle class began to lose interest in marriage, they also caused the economic stagnation in their particular social class. In his essay “What We Face Now is a Cultural Inequality”, he took great pains to provide understandable examples in support of his claim by using two fictional towns, Belmont and Fishtown, that respectively represented the affluent and middle class parts of society. Somehow, it is hard to believe his claims were based upon studies of the upper and middle class over the past 50 years. Murray would like us to believe that the following data he claims to have collated over time proves that the decline of marriage has a direct effect on the economic status of the middle class (Murray, Charles "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010"): In 1960, extremely high proportions of whites in both Belmont and Fishtown were married—94% in Belmont and 84% in Fishtown. In the 1970s, those percentages declined about equally in both places. Then came the great divergence. In Belmont, marriage stabilized during the mid-1980s, standing at 83% in 2010. In Fishtown, however, marriage continued to slide; as of 2010, a minority (just 48%) were married. The gap in marriage between Belmont and Fishtown grew to 35 percentage points, from just 10. Basing his explanation on those statistics, he argued that the lack of marriage resulted in a lower economic growth for the middle class. After all, the double income family no longer existed in his opinion. Murray basically wanted his readers to equate marriage and economics as a partnership that grows the social class. Regretfully, his claims lacked any solid basis as his essay failed to present supporting data and information to back up his claim. Aside from a changing moral outlook within the middle class society, there truly does not seem to be any solid proof that his claim pertaining to the decline of the middle class economy in relation to the decline in marriage has a direct relation. In a modern society, women are expected to be financially independent. Thus, they are no longer beholden to men for their financial survival. Working class women have increased their participation in the modern work place and as such have managed to prove that they are quite able to take care of themselves, without a man. Although there are some who are in agreement with Murray about the decline of marriage existing in the lower income levels of our society, that does not mean that there has been a change in the moral value of marriage, neither would it have a direct effect on the economics of the middle class (Wilson, William Julius “The Great Disparity”). The lack of marriage therefore cannot equate into what Murray believes to be the resulting stagnation of the economic status of the middle class. After all, the middle class continue to work although no longer with a combined income. Therefore, the inflow of money into that particular sector of society still continues and adjusts to the existing inflation rates. One has to remember that our society lives in far more cash strapped times than our parents, or even grandparents ever did. We no longer live in the booming 80s or the internet rich 90s that saw unbelievable growth rates in the economic status of the middle class. These days, marriage is not easily married into due to the economic implications of the union. In fact, most people delay or totally swear off getting married because of preexisting poverty. Therefore, poverty is “ a cause, not a result of low marriage rates” (qtd. in The Economist). Marriage is something that entails a lot more than just the love and lust that exist between two people. It requires a total economic overhaul for the marrying parties. What with the need to move into a housing situation that will be sufficient to meet the needs of two people or a growing family, the financial complications that arise from having to manage a household budget, and the need to continuously adjust to the inflation rate, is normally enough to make even the most supportive marriage advocate think twice about entering into such a union. In the Belmont and Fishtown study of Murray, he concentrated merely on the statistics of marriage and neglected to fairly look into the resulting economic stability that the decline of marriage actually caused in the middle class. By opting to not marry, the middle class managed to stabilize their personal income because of the lack of married responsibilities. As financially independent people, the man and the woman manage to take care of their singular financial needs and grow their own savings on a small scale. Murrays study also failed to take into account the fact that most couples today prefer to live together without the benefit of marriage. They also contribute to the growth of the middle class economy in the process. After all, theirs is still a combined income, it is just reported separately and recorded as such. Keeping in mind the fact that inflation has grown exponentially over the past 50 years, the decline of marriage cannot truly be pointed to as evidence of the economic decline of the middle class. With Murrays failure to take note of these changes in the social structure of the average American society, he failed to accurately represent the statistics pertaining to the economic situation of the average American middle class society. Instead, Murray presented his readers with inaccurate information that was slanted towards a particular belief that he advocated within the pages of his essay. As such, his essay should be considered to be a disservice to the middle class whose economic status was not accurately portrayed to the reading public. The decline of marriage did not have anything to do with the decline in the economic growth of the middle class. It instead reclassified how the economic status of the middle class population is presented to the public. Word Count= 1000 Works Cited Murray, Charles. "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010". What We Now Face is a Problem of Cultural Inequality. n.p. n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. The Economist. “The Fraying Knot”. The Economist. economist.com. 9 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. Wilson, William Julius. “The Great Disparity”. Hot Topics. The Nation. 10 Jul. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2013. Read More