Simple math shows marriage is crucial to ending poverty

I am firmly convinced that the number one cause of poverty is children born out of wedlock. "Out of wedlock" is a quaint term now and is almost never used anymore, but it should be.  Instead of treating an unmarried women who has children as someone meriting of praise, in my view, when an unmarried  women gives birth it should still be shameful. Instead of celebrated an unmarried birth it should be shamed and pitied.

Study after study shows a correlation between marital status and family poverty.  That should not be a surprise. Correlation does not prove cause and effect of course but there are reason why a parents marital status correlates to poverty.  There is almost as much correlation to marital status of the parents and poverty as there is to education level of the parents and poverty. We cannot significantly reduce poverty until we again make it the norm that people marry before having children.

Brad Wilcox in a piece published in AEI says just because "putting a ring on it" won’t cure all poverty, that doesn't mean marriage is irrelevant. Below is a chart from the study that illustrates the correlation between the marital status of the parents and poverty. To read his article follow this link: The math favors married parents.

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