1/6 Bridging America’s Social Capital Divide - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Americans aspire to strong and stable families. Yet today we see a worrying trend: a marriage divide. That aspiration to achieve a stable, married family life, and enjoy the social and economic advantages it brings, is increasingly only realized by the educated and affluent class. Federal policy makers interested in bridging that divide and strengthening the American family ought to address five family-related problems:

FIVE PROBLEMS

1. A growing marriage divide that falls along class and educational lines
Today, the majority of more affluent Americans are married, whereas a majority of their less-affluent fellow citizens are not. Such a divide was virtually nonexistent in the 1970s.

2. A marriageability crisis among men

Coupled with the relative stagnation of working-class male wages, there has been a sharp decline in men’s participation rate in the labor force. In the late 1960s, nearly all prime-age (25–54) men with only a high-school diploma participated, but by 2015, only 85.3 percent of these men were working or looking for work. These men are increasingly unattractive marriage partners.

3. Rise of young, low-income Americans having children outside of marriage
In 2019, 40 percent of new infants were born to unwed mothers, usually poor or working class. Women were nearly six times as likely to have a child outside of marriage if they had only a high-school diploma, compared to those with a college degree.

4. Federal policy penalizes marriage

Congress tackled marriage penalties for upper-income families in 2017, but perverse incentives against aspirations to marriage remain for many working-class couples. Four in ten American families with children receive means-tested benefits or tax credits that are often more generous if parents remain unmarried.

5. Culture downplays the benefits of marriage

America’s educated, affluent classes embrace a marriage-centered lifestyle for themselves and their children in private, accumulating social and economic advantages for themselves. Yet publicly, they reject a marriage-centered ethos.

FIVE POLICY SOLUTIONS

Federal policy makers keen to end this social capital divide should consider the following solutions:

1. Removing perverse marriage penalties from government programs

2. Public campaigns to promote the success sequence

3. Vocational education to offer more working-class men pathways to stable careers and increased marriageability

4. School choice and education savings accounts (ESAs) to improve relationship success

5. Make work pay, through wage subsidy programs

Two possible paths lie before America’s families. On one, the affluent continue to reap the vast benefits of marriage while the working class become increasingly isolated and alienated from this crucial social-capital-creating institution. The other is a future where all Americans, regardless of background, are empowered to build the strong families they aspire to create for their children.

The policies outlined in this paper will help individuals and families fulfill their private, personal aspirations to build strong and stable families—for the benefit of American society as a whole.