Originally posted by: SMOGZINN
Originally posted by: shrumpage
Government has a huge interest in families.
I agree with you, but I think they should not.
Know what the most common factor of inmates is? they don't have fathers (or fathers that stick around).
This really proves nothing, and I really doubt your claim. I am pretty certain that the most common factor of inmates would be having committed a crime, but even if we accept your claim it still does not really mean anything, it is just another stat. Here is some stats for you, they seem to be just as, if not more, significant:
90% of all Americans in prison are male.
Nearly 50% of them are African American.
More then 60% of all inmates in American prisons are in for drug related crimes.
Do you really think that not having a father around is more common then those?
Going back to pre-civil war days, there was an effort by plantation owners to break up slave families to make them weaker and easier to control.
Once again this does not really lend much support to your argument. I would guess that they broke up slave families so as to reduce the maternal/paternal instincts from causing problems. They did not always break up slave families, and those families were still slaves. So being a family did not give them the strength to overthrow their masters.
it is better for kids to grow up in a structured, unchanging enviroment.
This is has some truth to it, but marriage does not create a structured, unchanging environment. That can only come from the character of the parent(s), and that can not be influenced by paying a tax or getting a license.
I've watached slow as a friends daughter live with her mom as she bounces to boyfriend to boyfriend - the boyfriends aren't terriable (no drug dealers). But not having that security has effected here.
This is your proof that marriage works? Did you think that maybe it is the character of the mom that is the problem, and not the lack of a marriage? Perhaps she should not 'bounces to boyfriend to boyfriend?' She does not need to be married to decide to put her personal life on the back burner for her daughter.
People who are married and have kids are more likely to stick togather, as opposed to those who have kids that are not in a marriage. Intact families tend to contribute better to society.
I would like to see the study that shows this. I have seen studies that show that marriages with out kids tend to end faster, but I can not remember any study that stated that a couple that had kids would stick together longer if they were married as opposed to a couple with kids that were not married. They study would have to take into account is they planned to have kids, because we already know that a couple that has kids that they were not expecting is considerably more likely to end faster.
so the government does have an interest in marriage.
And it should abandon that interest.