Quote:
Originally Posted by justjim
Besides technology and social media making a major change in our lives, we have kids at best, both mom and dad working, and at worst single parents working two jobs and kids coming home to an empty house. Without adult supervision drugs easily can enter the picture. When we can home from school Mom was there and a couple hours later Dad came home from work we had what we called supper together. We didn’t have a lot of money but we had family. The family as we knew it is almost nonexistent. Over half of marriages end up in divorce. Divorce was frowned upon when we were growing up. Economically we have the haves and have nots with the middle class loosing ground to the upper income brackets. These are just a few things that are different. “In pursuit of higher profits at the cost of lower labor costs we may have lost the American dream.” Anonymous
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There is a lot of truth to what you are saying. A few observations. Divorce rates have actually been going down for decades. What has happened that you referenced is that there used to be a lot more stay-at-home moms who worked on family. In/around 1970, about 30% of two-parent households had both parents working. That number had risen to over 45% of two-parent households in 2015 and has continued to rise since. In the 70's and 80's many families needed both parents working to "stay" in the middle class and that trend has continued.
There is no doubt a strong nuclear family contributes greatly to the development of our future generations and society. 42% of American households were nuclear families 50 years ago. That number has dropped to 22% today (
Will the American Nuclear Family Die Out? - OZY | A Modern Media Company). Of all the problems we have in American society - this is the most significant in my opinion. Many children today have little to no chance of achieving the American dream through no fault of their own. Just as you note, we can give these kids all the handouts we want but that isn't going to substitute for a strong nuclear family and the lack thereof leaves them exposed to a lot of outside pressures.