Americans are born into smaller families than before, with fewer brothers, sisters, and cousins. They’re less likely to marry and less likely to have children. Membership in churches and other religious organizations is in decline. Fraternal organizations are emptying out. Many Americans will live increasingly lonely lives and die alone.
One important factor you don't mention is jobs. The unhappiness associated with unemployment is probably due in significant part to no longer being around people as often (though the context of who/where/when also matters a lot, so it's a bit complicated). Many people make friends on the job also and it's much harder for a man without a job to get married.
A lot of creative interventions here. I like the idea of more support for fraternal organizations. It seems to me a lot of efforts here have been co-opted by the internet. We try to simulate community with social media, but it's just not the same. Reminds me of this quote from an Art of Manliness interview (https://www.artofmanliness.com/podcast/the-life-were-looking-for-podcast/):
"There’s always this moment where people are like, “Well, we need to connect more.” There’s not enough camaraderie, and so they’ll like, “We’ll do this group chat, or we’ll do Discord,” and this will be the thing and then nothing ever changes. And then… I don’t know.
It’s frustrating ’cause I think lot of people think like, “Oh, this will be it, this is gonna be the thing that fixes it,” and it’s like no, it’s not. It’s not gonna be that."
The community can't just be digital, it needs to be physical, too.
Nice job researching this topic. It looks like you put in a lot of effort.
I don't really have a better way of intevening, but the culture is probably the main issue with low marriage rates. Reverting back to the norm of no sex before marriage, forcing men to marry women they impregnate, shaming promiscuous people, etc. would probably increase marriage rates a lot. I'm not sure how plausible returning is. I imagine the effect of some of these would be small in comparison, but that is okay. Some might have objections to reintroducing stigma around sex.
One important factor you don't mention is jobs. The unhappiness associated with unemployment is probably due in significant part to no longer being around people as often (though the context of who/where/when also matters a lot, so it's a bit complicated). Many people make friends on the job also and it's much harder for a man without a job to get married.
A lot of creative interventions here. I like the idea of more support for fraternal organizations. It seems to me a lot of efforts here have been co-opted by the internet. We try to simulate community with social media, but it's just not the same. Reminds me of this quote from an Art of Manliness interview (https://www.artofmanliness.com/podcast/the-life-were-looking-for-podcast/):
"There’s always this moment where people are like, “Well, we need to connect more.” There’s not enough camaraderie, and so they’ll like, “We’ll do this group chat, or we’ll do Discord,” and this will be the thing and then nothing ever changes. And then… I don’t know.
It’s frustrating ’cause I think lot of people think like, “Oh, this will be it, this is gonna be the thing that fixes it,” and it’s like no, it’s not. It’s not gonna be that."
The community can't just be digital, it needs to be physical, too.
Nice job researching this topic. It looks like you put in a lot of effort.
I don't really have a better way of intevening, but the culture is probably the main issue with low marriage rates. Reverting back to the norm of no sex before marriage, forcing men to marry women they impregnate, shaming promiscuous people, etc. would probably increase marriage rates a lot. I'm not sure how plausible returning is. I imagine the effect of some of these would be small in comparison, but that is okay. Some might have objections to reintroducing stigma around sex.