Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site unc.unc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!unc!fsks From: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: Re: marriage |= (necessarily) commitment Message-ID: <155@unc.unc.UUCP> Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 20:32:53 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.155 Posted: Thu Aug 15 20:32:53 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 04:10:21 EDT References: <616@ttidcc.UUCP> <3657@cornell.UUCP> <1773@mnetor.UUCP> Reply-To: fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) Organization: CS Dept, U. of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill Lines: 25 Summary: In article <1773@mnetor.UUCP> sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) writes: > >In some countries in Europe. more and more unmarried couples are having >children. I remember reading somewhere that in Sweden the figure was >somewhere around 40% and in France close to 15%. > >I think that society "used" to see childrearing and marriage as synonymous, >but that this is all changing very much (where society here = america + >western Europe). Do you think this change is for the better? I have strong doubts. My guess is that most of the children of unmarried couples are actually not being raised by an unmarried couple, but rather by just one of the parents. Often, these children grow up in poverty, and with low-quality (if any) adult supervision. This phenomenon became common among the poorest classes in New York during the middle 1960's. Before then, single parenthood just wasn't economically feasible for these women. This generation of children is now coming of age. Having grown up on the street, without the parental discipline that teaches self-discipline, they are, in many cases, unemployable. Many have turned to crime. Already, they are filling New York's prisons. Frank Silbermann