Recession, love not a good mix

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1:17 PM Tuesday, February 2, 2010

While much of the nation has been focused on the State of the Union — as described by President Barack Obama last week — there are others who are focused on the “State of Our Unions.”

That was the title of a recent national report that examined current marriage trends and was edited by University of Virginia sociology professor W. Bradford Wilcox, who told the Charlottesville (Va.) Daily Progress that “many couples have been hit hard by the Great Recession,” his term for the nation’s severe economic slump which began in 2008.

“The marriage rate has fallen modestly in the last year,” Wilcox told the newspaper. “Part of the story here is that couples are waiting to get married until the recession ends and their financial prospects improve. But part of the story is that a growing number of couples are postponing marriage indefinitely, or not even giving it serious consideration, because their financial prospects are not bright enough to give them a reasonable shot at the American dream.”

That trend is happening here, too. As contributing writer Amanda Seitz reported Jan. 31, the number of marriage license applications in Butler County last year dropped to their lowest number since 1970 when only 2,030 were filed. In 2009, 2,041 applications for marriage licenses were filed. The number has been dropping steadily nearly every year for the past decade. In 2000, 2,513 applications were filed.

Of course, the 1970 number of 2,030 applications must be placed in proper context. In 1970, Butler County’s population was 226,207.

In 2009, when only 2,041 applications were filed, Butler County’s population was estimated to be 363,000. So the rate is even lower than 1970’s, based on population.

As Seitz noted, Butler County’s numbers reflect a national trend that suggests that more couples are choosing cohabitation over marriage. While changing values and beliefs may be partly responsible for that shift, most believe the economic recession — which has already affected so many families through unemployment, home foreclosures and mounting debt — has also thrown a wet blanket over the desires of many young couples to tie the knot. And older couples, Seitz noted, often have financial interests to protect and thus forgo matrimony.

It all adds up to a rather bleak, unromantic picture as Valentine’s Day 2010 approaches.

Will the institution of marriage — the bedrock of our society — stage a comeback when the recession finally ends and unemployment prospects improve locally and across the nation? That’s the million-dollar question that sociologists — and courthouse clerks — will be watching.

However, if you’re a marriage advocate, there is one silver lining among all the dark economic clouds: Divorce rates have been dropping during the recession because many unhappy married couples simply cannot afford to get divorced. Experts will be watching that trend line, too, when the dark clouds lift.

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I find it commendable that you acknowledge marriage as the "bedrock of our society", as it certainly should be. For how much longer is the real issue; economic conditions notwithstanding. The ordained sacrament of holy matrimony between a committed man and a woman, as well as the ensuing family unit, has been under fire on various political, social and legal special interest agendas for decades. Once the glue that held our society together, it is often viewed as just an option; at a tragic cost.

cda
3:28 PM, 2/2/2010

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