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