Orphaned bastards
You are probably familiar with the saying that success has a thousand parents while failure is an orphan. I was reminded of that when a local university recently invited me and the missus to watch a movie (or possibly exhibition, or perhaps both) that celebrates the school’s contributions to “social justice.” I imagine the “social justice” in question is a hodge podge of civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, foreigners’ rights, unionism and probably a few other causes tossed in for good measure. What probably won’t be included is the rise of the single-mom household, even though that development is probably the single most important one in American society over the past fifty years. Just recently I came across a study that advocates for a minimum-wage increase (which I support) that casually mentioned that “the increase in single-parent families can explain all of the increase in child poverty since 1970.”
That’s only of the very many consequences of the rise of the single-mom households. Another is the rise in violent crime. How many homicides over the past 35 years were indirectly caused by the prevalence of single-mom households? 50,000? 100,000? 200,000? Then there’s the detrimental impact on wealth creation. On health. On housing. On just about any number of aspects of life. It seems to me that the single-mom culture, if one can call it that, is the worst disaster that has beset American society over the past few decades.
But I don’t think a university will ever invite me or anybody else to watch a movie or exhibition on its contributions to the intellectual, ideological, legal and political forces that brought about the rapid rise of the single-mom household. Perhaps some prison-management company will.
