1. A kind of “Me-First Marriage”—where marriage was seen as a vehicle for happiness, individual fulfillment & self-actualization—reached its zenith in the late 20th c. Many people thought marriage was just abt enjoying the peaks of “Mt. Maslow,” to take @EliJFinkel’s metaphor.👇🏼
2. Many assumed marriage’s other classic functions—mutual aid, financial stability, extending/receiving care to/from kin, & the education/support/care of children—could be handled to an imp. extent by state & market. Leaving men & women to pursue more indiv. model of marriage.
3. But growing social and economic inequality, economic precarity, political & social instability, and the hollowing out of so many of our civic and public institutions mean that a more “Family-First” model of marriage is re-emerging in the 21st century.
4. Married people are coming to see how much their kids depend upon them keeping things together, as this George Packer in @TheAtlantic noted:
5. They have some tacit or explicit knowledge their housing, 401(k), retirement, medical care, etc. will be better if they treat their parents, spouse & kids well. And this seems to be truer by moment as other sources of social/econ solidarity weaken... today.com/money/why-marr…
6. So as other sources of social & economic & political solidarity erode, marriage is moving away from “Me-First” to “Family-First” model, and reappropriating elements of what @EliJFinkel calls “institutional” and “companionate” marriage in his “Mt Maslow” model.👇🏼
7. COVID fallout has reinforced the move to a “Family-First” model of marriage, where marriage is @ much more than “Me”; it’s about
- Caring (educating) kids
- Giving/Receiving kin care
- Mutual aid
- Financial stability
8. In U.S., one sign of this is *divorce is down* in 2020, building on earlier declines in divorce, as @lymanstoneky & I note👇🏼. Bigger point: Growing marital stability is one sign that people are viewing marriage as a more imp source of social stability: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
9. Globally, new @pewresearch indicates the countries most affected by COVID—Italy, US, UK, Spain, etc—are also the ones that have also seen ⬆️ in family solidarity. Tough times can make people turn towards kin.
10. So, in the US, for those marrying & having children today, I think COVID is reinforcing a tendency to cast aside the “Me-First” (soulmate-y) model of marriage in favor of a more “Family-First” model of marriage that ⬆️the spouse, kin & esp. kids. ifstudies.org/blog/covid-19-…
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1. Is “Universal Child Care” a good idea? Consider Quebec, which “launched its universal child care program in 1997.”
Evaluations found “2- to 4-year-old children who had been in child care showed significant ⬆️ in anxiety, aggression, & hyperactivity.” ifstudies.org/blog/universal…
2. “As children grew older, these negative outcomes did not dissipate: among 5- to 9-year-olds, the social-emotional problems not only persisted, but in some cases increased, particularly for boys with the most elevated behavioral problems.” economics.mit.edu/files/3103
3. “Follow-up studies conducted 20 years after the program’s inception further revealed a subsequent ‘sharp and contemporaneous increase in criminal behavior’ across Quebec, as the rate of crime conviction jumped 22 percent.”