What came first: The struggling economy or the decline of stable family life?
Some refuse to take a side in what they see as a false dichotomy in this chicken vs. egg scenario, an approach with which The New York Times' David Leonhardt sympathizes. "The safe thing for a journalist to say about these dueling views is that they’re both partly correct. And they are!"
But while Leonhardt agrees, at least partially, with a more nuanced view of the issue, that didn't keep him from staking firm ground in what he sees as the clearest way to read the data.
"The notion that the decline of low-income marriage is no more than an aftershock of rising income inequality seems, in a word, wrong," Leonhardt argued in The Times' data analysis blog, The Upshot. While economics certainly play a major role in marriage decisions, he continues, the data show that marriage plays an even larger role in the economy.
Read the full article at The Upshot.
JJ Feinauer is a web producer for Moneywise and Opinion on DeseretNews.com. Email: jfeinauer@deseretdigital.com, Twitter: jjfeinauer.