Why the Federal Government Should Champion Marriage

In almost every area of life, I am a laissez-faire capitalist. In other words, I don’t think that the government should pick and choose winners and losers by favoring one business over another… or one segment of the population over another. I guess that is why I despise quotas when it comes to hiring for a job or enrolling in a college.

In my humble opinion, Uncle Sam should keep his hands off, let the chips fall where they may, and allow the cream to rise to the top.
Except, that is, when it comes to marriage, which has been the cornerstone of virtually every civilization and culture since time immemorial. Simply put, strong marriages make for strong families which make for a strong society.

Let me run two incontrovertible truths by you. First, multiple studies conducted over the past 60 years have reached the same conclusion: that out-of-wedlock birth is the leading predictor of future incarceration and lifelong poverty. Second, studies show that marriage is the single best predictor of long-term happiness.

According to Sociologist Brad Wilcox and the Institute for Family Studies’ David Bass, new research from the University of Chicago suggests that “Americans who are married with children are now leading happier and more prosperous lives, on average, than men and women who are single and childless.” And not just a little bit happier, either. There is a “startling 30-percentage-point happiness divide between married and unmarried Americans,” Wilcox and Bass say.

In order to generate unbiased results, Sam Peltzman, the lead researcher for the study at the University of Chicago, isolated all other factors among thousands of respondents, including income, education, race, location, age, and gender. His conclusion? “The most important differentiator” when it comes to who is happy and who is not is marriage. That applies whether a person is single due to divorce, widowhood, or never having been married.

Olga Khazan of the Atlantic agrees, despite having co-habitated with her partner for the past 15 years. “This is a fairly consistent finding dating back decades in social-science research: Married people are happier. Period.”

Aside from the fact that married people are generally happier than their single counterparts, there are a lot of other reasons why the government should encourage people to marry. All things being equal, a married couple provides a more stable and nurturing environment for childrearing. Well-rounded and well-grounded children tend to do better in school, stay off drugs, avoid gang membership, stay out of prison, and remain off welfare rolls… thereby creating a safer community and saving taxpayers’ untold billions every year.

However, instead of supporting the institution of marriage – or at the very least remaining impartial – the federal government often penalizes married couples financially. According to Wilcox and Bass, for many Americans who are living together and may already have children, getting married incurs a tax “penalty.” The federal government needs to, in their words, stop “making marriage a bad financial bet for lower-income families.”

Personally, I know of several unmarried couples who live together instead of getting married because “getting hitched” would result in their government benefits being reduced. I have also been told by numerous people on welfare that if a social worker makes a surprise visit and finds “a man in the house”, their monthly stipend is decreased.

If marriage makes people happier – and saves society boatloads of money – why doesn’t Uncle Sam support it? Your guess is as good as mine.

(Portions of this article were excerpted from “Married People Are Happier” by John Stonestreet and Shane Morris of the Colson Center.)