If you order your custom term paper from our custom writing service you will receive a perfectly written assignment on The Effects of Single Families in the United States.. What we need from you is to provide us with your detailed paper instructions for our experienced writers to follow all of your specific writing requirements. Specify your order details, state the exact number of pages required and our custom writing professionals will deliver the best quality The Effects of Single Families in the United States. paper right on time.
Out staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in The Effects of Single Families in the United States., therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your The Effects of Single Families in the United States. paper at affordable prices!
Upon reading the article "UnMarried America" written by Michelle Conlin which appeared in "Business Week" magazine for the week of October 0, 00, I have realized just how much society has changed in my lifetime. Marriage is no longer viewed with as much importance as it was in the past. It is now viewed as normal to be divorced, single parent, or for same sex couples to raise children on there own.
According to Michelle Conlin "The U.S. Census Bureau's newest numbers show that married-couple households-the dominant cohort since the country's founding- have slipped from nearly 80% in the 150's to just 50.7% today. That means that the US's 86 million single adults could soon define the new majority" (106).
I can't help but wonder what effect this will have on the future of the United States? In the past if a home had a child living there, more often that not the child's parents were married. Today this is rare. In the past a single mother was viewed as an "Aberration" (106). In today's society, it is accepted as normal. This has made a huge impact on the Nation's economy. Michelle Conlin reported that "Already, unmarried adults make up 4% of the workforce, 40% of home buyers, and 5% of voters" (106).
There seems to be an infatuation with marriage in the United States. Many adults are seeking marriage but so many seem to wait until later in life, between the debates of same sex marriages to President Bush's marriage-promotion campaign to TV's views on marriage our culture has become "Marriage-crazed" (Conlin, 108).
There seems to be a growing trend of single families, it is almost as if marriage has become outdated. Today married families only make up 5% of every residence, and this is expected to drop to 0% by the year 010, says the Census Bureau. By this time nearly 0% of home will be lead by a single adult.
According to Michelle Conlin this "unprecedented demographic shift holds vast implications for everything from Corporate America to the culture wars; from government institutions to the legal system"(108). No longer do we look to shows like "Leave it to Beaver", "Brady Bunch" for our views on family life. Our Social Security Retirement fund was built in the last century encouraging marriage. Now that there is a growing number of single homes, what kind of impact will this have in the future on our Social Security, will there be enough benefits for everyone?
Michelle Conlin also stated "The notion that married people lose out because they pay more in taxes through the oft-cited marriage penalty is only partly true. Dual-income, high-earning marrieds and low-income couples sometimes suffer the penalty, but for slightly more than half of all spouses, marriage actually slashes tax bills, particularly for those with children. That means, for example that mega-salary executives with stay-at-home wives get subsidies that single working mothers don't"(108). This appears to me to show that our government is rewarding those who are married, because less taxes are taken from a married adult than that from a single, but a married couple is able to claim more of a tax break on there taxes. This may seem unfair to many but you also have to remember in today's society it seems most married couples have two incomes coming in which in turn places a larger tax on the couple. Due to there being more single workers this has increased our Social Security income for the time being. But in the workplace unmarried people make up to an average of 5% less than those that are married. This is mainly due to the marriage-centric of health-care benefits, retirements, calculates "Thomas F. Coleman" a lawyer who heads the Los Angeles-based American Society for Single people (qrd. In Conlin, 108).
Also according to Michelle Conlin "In the civic arena, rising school taxes and growing inequities in pensions between marrieds and singles represent a big bonus for legal couples. The unmarried are often subject to discrimination in housing and credit applications. They pay more for auto and homeowners' insurance and are shut out of valuable discounts on gyms, country clubs, hotel rooms-even football-ticket lotteries. In some states, unmarried people, perhaps laid off from jobs and scrounging to pay their bills, are barred from taking on roommates to help pay the rent" (108).
With our advances in medical research, we are living longer and due to this if we live to the age of 70 we will more than likely live most of our adult lives single. This has made for a deficit in our Social Security Benefits, because we are now living longer and there is a greater population than in the past more benefits are being used. There seems to be a growing number of elderly adults that are being forced into working due to a longer life span than in the past.
The number of children born to single mothers in the United States has grown to %. Many of these mothers are unemployed or underemployed, which leads to the mother leaning on the government to help with her financial needs for the child. Although many of these single adults are raising children, they still are forced to pay higher taxes, unemployment rates, receive fewer job benefits, and receive fewer discounts.
As reality sinks into America, we will be forced to realize that we must change our structure of not only our outlook on marriage, but we need to come up with a more feasible plan for single families. Michelle Conlin stated that "Already in Corporate America, more than 40% of the 500 largest companies have started to revise their marriage-centric policies, reexamining everything from subsidized spousal health care to family Christmas parties"(10). In doing this it will allow their employees to add another adult to their health plans, such as a domestic partner or a qualifying child.
This decline in marriage raises some questions. Will the future generation be able to support the needs of retirement? Will there be enough educated employees to keep up with the growing needs of production?
Michelle Conlin, also stated that "THE TENSIONS BETWEEN TRADITIONAL families and the new households are already starting to spill out all over society- in offices, neighborhoods, and political campaigns" (110).
Singles are challenging zoning laws that limit who can live with them, and in turn others are forming associations that ban children from living in certain areas. Some singles are trying to change the way the travel industry tries to force them into paying a higher percentage for travel due to being single.
Due to our changing society, you are finding increasingly same sex couples coming out of the closet. In doing this they are then eligible to share their health benefits, taxes, etc. in order to receive the same benefits a married heterosexual couple receives. Many older couples are forced to forego marriage and live together due to avoiding loosing benefits from a deceased spouse's pension or health benefits. This to me seems to be a Catch . If they remarry after their spouse passes on they will loose benefits that have been left to them from their spouse but if they do not remarry then they are forced to pay higher taxes at a single rate. A married man receives 85% more in benefits than those that are single, and African Americans, who have low marriage and life expectancy.
According to Michelle Conlin, "Although marriage and fertility rates are at their lowest point in history across the industrialized world, and estimated 85% of Americans will still marry at least once in their lives-even though that is a huge drop from the historic 150's" (114). This has me wondering why our value of marriage has dropped so much, wondering what message we are sending to the children of America? With the legalization of gay marriage or even the increased number of married immigrants, this may in some way increase the percentage of married Americans. "Judging by the attitudes of young people, that seems unlikely. Fully 54% of female high school seniors say they believe that having a child outside of marriage is a worthwhile lifestyle, up from % in 180, according to the University of Michigan Survey Research Center. And 40% of female twentysomethings would consider having a baby on their own if they reached their mid-0's and hadn't found the right man to marry" (114).
"Since 170, the ranks of the never-married and the childless have surged astronomically, according to the Census Bureau. There is also a creeping disconnect between marriage and the child-rearing, with an 850% increase since 160 in the number of unmarried couples living with kids" (114). This may be due to women now seeking careers before marriage and children, and with the welfare reform today many younger mothers are now employed.
As Americans, I feel we need to take a good look not only at our values of marriage, but we also need to look for other alternatives to help the single families. The higher tax cuts on a single mother or father has placed many children in poverty-ridden homes. This even has had some seeking marriage just to have the tax break, in that unfortunately many of these marriages do not last. We as adults need to take the time to look at the big picture "the children". I feel we need to look back to our ancestor's and remember that we built this country on the values of family, and it seems these values are no longer valid in America. If as a Society we feel that marriage is no longer the way of life then we need to look for other means to help our society make their way in America.
Bibliography
Conlin, Michelle. "Unmarried America." Business Week 0 Oct. 00106-116.
Please note that this sample paper on The Effects of Single Families in the United States. is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on The Effects of Single Families in the United States., we are here to assist you. Your cheap custom college paper on The Effects of Single Families in the United States. will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
Order your authentic assignment and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete a quality custom paper within the shortest time possible!
