by metatron 7 Replies latest jw friends
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/01/17/americas-exodus-from-marriage/
The Watchtower is entering a culture that is increasingly secular and resistant to change. I don't share the pessimism of articles such as these as long as abortion is available.
Cold as that sounds, I believe it makes a huge difference to a child if he or she is loved and wanted - a big positive for society.
metatron
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_028.pdf 2002 Report
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr049.pdf 2012 Report
I wanted to see if the trend in Canada is reflective of what is happening in the US. Just like in Canada, couples are waiting longer to get married, and are more likely to cohabit first. Marriages are more likely to last longer if the couples have a college degree.
Marriage isn't really the issue, it's the fact that adults get tired of the same old same old and want to ditch their responsibilities. Whether the couple was married or not, if they split up after having kids together, the results are the same. The same amount of income cannot support two separate households at the same level as just one household. It's unlikely that either mom or dad will get a raise just for getting divorced or splitting up, so at best both parties face a reduced standard of living. That's tolerable from a societal point of view when the family in question is wealthy - running two households on a million dollars a year is doable. However, the majority of people don't fall into that category. Low and middle income families can end up receiving government assistance, at least temporarily, after a split.
I don't care whether people are married or not, I care whether they prioritize raising their children over everything else in their lives.
Finally Awake,
Do you think maybe the government assistance is contributing to the problem?
In the past, if two people were living together and raising children. They knew that they NEEDED each other to support the family. But now that government assistance is available, mothers may be more likely to leave their mates and live off government programs instead.
It's not that people today are more selfish and less apt to stay together. They were always like that. The difference now is that they have the option to split up and leach off the charity of others.
There's no downside for the individual who refuses to make their marriage work. But there is a downside for the society that agrees to support them when they break up.
Divorce rates have levelled off. Average duration of a marriage, eight years. If you check out the link, scroll down to table 8.
People are stupid.
By the time a mother even knows she's pregnant the baby already has a working brain, nervous system, and heartbeat.
Because it has this nervous system already in working order, this means it that it can also feel pain.
So, because the baby is inconvenient, the mother is willing to either burn it to death with saline solution, or rip it apart painfully to shreds by other means. Now, if we were to do that to any animal, we'd be jailed for animal abuse. If we were to do such a thing to any other person, we'd be imprisoned for murder.
BUT.... because this entity is silent and tiny, we can simply inflict this abuse simply for the convenience of it all.
Oh, but the mother isn't ready to be a mom?
THEN KEEP YOUR DAMNED LEGS CLOSED! Masturbation does not get you pregnant! And what the h..... is wrong with giving the baby to a childless couple who WANTS the baby? SELFISH CRAP!
The mother was a rape victim?
HOW IS THAT AN EXCUSE TO KILL A LIVING BEING?(and before you slaughter me on this, I once was a rape victim at age 16; gang rape; no birth control, scared of impregnation, dealt with it anyway)
At what point is a baby a person? Who decides this?
I had one idiot tell me that the already-borns were of more priority than the unborns. REALLY?
EVERY ALREADY-BORN USED TO BE AN UNBORN! If no unborns were priority, none of us would have a chance!
RANT OVER.
Who decides this?
Answer: We do.
Is there any thunderbolt sent from heaven to punish us otherwise? If no, case closed.
I continue to hold that, if a Personal God exists, then he needs to speak with us personally - and not thru books written by persons we don't know, in long dead languages, and recopied across centuries.
His direct contact being nonexistent, we decide by default. The Bible is a nice traditional guide but that's all.
metatron
Lore - I agree with your point that perhaps people are more likely to walk out since assistance programs are available. However, unlike the old days, women are now fully able to work and support themselves in any type of job they are willing to do. Unlike one of my great aunts, who was left a widow at 19 and had no options at the time except prostitution until she could find another spouse. There weren't a lot of options for a poor, uneducated woman from a rural area in 1910. It certainly wasn't a level playing field - the man didn't need the woman the same way that the woman needed the man.
I think men now don't feel the same obligation to support their kids - they know that the mom can get a job, or get welfare - although there have always been men who didn't feel any obligation to support their kids.
