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04/16/2008: "Study: Single parents cost taxpayers $112 billion"

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.

But Tim Smeeding, an economics professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, who was not involved in the study, said he's seen no convincing evidence that the marriage-strengthening programs work.

"I have nothing against marriage -- relationship-building is great," he said. "But alone it's not going to do the job. A full-employment economy would probably be the best thing -- decent, stable jobs."

He also noted the distinctive problems arising in black urban areas where the rate of single-mother households is highest.

[ Blacks have cultural reasons for not embracing marriage, and when you have a multicultural society, values spread, and it's always in the simplest direction, since you can bring people down without much effort but you can't make everyone achieve what whites would call "high" standards (which are "racist" anyway). This understanding must be added to observation that the consumer culture, which brings in tax revenue, does so while corrupting the society. ]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/04/15/fragmented.families.ap/index.html