State of Our Union - Marriage (week 2)

In class we read State of Our Unions.  It was so interesting to read about the statistics of marriage and divorce and how both affect our children and our taxes!


 Marriage is expensive.  According to The Knot magazine  the average cost to get married in the United States is  $35,239.  According to Wikipedia  the average cost of living for one year in the United States for one person is $20,194.  Two people aren’t going to be quite as expensive since they live in the same home rather than two separate homes, but this is just an average per person.

Marriages that end in divorce also are very costly to the public.  Researcher, David Schramm, in “Individual and Social Costs of Divorce in Utah,” determined that a single divorce costs state and federal governments about $30,000, based on such factors as the increased use of food stamps and public hous­ing as well as increased bankruptcies and juvenile delinquen­cy. The nation’s 1.4 million divorces in 2002 are estimated to have cost the taxpayers more than $30 billion. 

In 2008 a team led by economist Ben Scafidi suggested that even very modest increases in stable marriage rates would result in large savings for taxpayers. These scholars calcu­lated that if family fragmentation were reduced by just 1 percent, U.S. taxpayers would save an estimated $1.1 billion annually.” 

There are various ideas that might be implemented to help with these costs.  Our federal tax returns are considered to have a marriage penalty.  It is much cheaper to be single and live together and collect welfare benefits for lower income “families.”  Food stamps, free school lunches and breakfasts, and Medicaid are examples of this. 

I have a daughter who has a lot of children but her husband doesn’t make very much money.  They qualify for all kinds of benefits and never have to pay for the birth of their children or other medical expenses.  I have a son who makes the same amount as my son-in-law and they have been trying very hard to have a baby.  Last year they were finally able to but had to have an emergency c-section.  The cost was $12,000.  They have been paying for medical insurance but it wouldn’t cover even half of the cost of this baby as the deductible was so high.  They did not qualify for Medicaid because my son made about $2500 too much to qualify and had to pay out of pocket for the rest of the hospital bills.  If they hadn’t been married, the baby would have been free as the government would have based the assistance on just my daughter-in-laws income..

According to the 16 October 2018 USA Today Newspaper the national debt is $21 trillion.  Perhaps if the government would get more involved and encourage married couples to stay together or to get married in the first place perhaps we might come closer to eliminating the needless costs of divorce and single parenting and instead pay off the national debt.  We need to change the way the United States looks at and treats marriage.  We shouldn't be penalized monetarily for what we know spiritually to be of God.

SOURCES:
The Knot -  https://xogroupinc.com/press-releases/theknot2016realweddings_costofweddingsus/
Wikipedia https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Cost_of_Living
 Individual and Social Costs of Divorce in Utah - (Journal of Family and Economic Issues 27 (2006): 1. page 81,)
Ben Scafidi - (The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and All Fifty States (New York: Institute for American Values and the Georgia Family Council, 2008).)
USA Today - (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/16/government-spending-how-rising-federal-debt-deficit-impact-americans/1589889002/).

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