Family - The Building Block of Society, Pt. 1

Well there are a lot of reasons that men are falling behind in this country, but just look at the numbers and it reveals one statistic that tracks the decline of American men.

Over time the disappearance of fathers from the home between 1960 and 2016, the proportion of kids living with both parents decreased by almost 20%. The percentage of children living with only their mothers nearly tripled in demographic terms. This is stunning changes to family structure as well as a drastic change in society morals.

This abrupt and profound change typically are only seen in wartime, and yet if anything those numbers understate the reality of fatherlessness in America. In the high income neighborhoods where journalists and policymakers tend to live not a lot has changed. Most kids there still grow up with their fathers and mothers, but in the rest of the country intact families are disappearing according to a 2014 study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

Among younger parents without college degrees seventy-four percent of mothers had at least one child outside of marriage. Out of wedlock births are now the rule across the country not the Exception.

Increasingly having a father at home is the sign of affluence but it's also a cause of influence, especially for boys who grow up with a father at Home. Boys who grew up with their fathers earn much more as adult boys who grow up alone with only their mothers, they tend to earn less, they also have more disciplinary problems in school and they read less and less. Also they're less likely to graduate from high school or go to college, and they're more likely to be unemployed and to live in poverty.

They get married less often and when they do they divorced more. They're more likely to be obese and have asthma. They are far more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, exhibit antisocial behavior and commit acts of violence as adults, and they're twice as likely to go to prison.

Now these numbers aren't the result of one study but of numerous large studies done over Generations.

The results hold true across geography and ethnic groups. This also applies in black urban and rural areas where boys raised without their fathers are at terrible risk. There's not much serious academic debate about this. The nationwide breakup of families is a disaster, and not just a moral disaster, but a practical one.