The Wrong Marriage Debate

Our current preoccupation with gay marriage has distracted us. The issue of greater importance is the degree to which heterosexual men and women are choosing to become parents while unmarried. . . . [W]hat we really have in this country is a caste system. At the top are the college graduates who nearly always get married before becoming pregnant. At the bottom are poor women of all races and backgrounds who routinely have babies before they marry (if they ever marry). . . . Perhaps they invest marriage with excessively lofty expectations for complete personal happiness and fulfillment? . . . Young women, especially poorly educated ones, have gotten the idea that marriage is all about them — about their romantic hopes. JWR, Washington Post