The Patriot's Platform presents a blog by John Wayne Tucker:
Marriage and Family – More Value Than You Imagined
We all know that marriage and family have been a part of the life of every culture since the beginning of recorded history. In fact, the family has been the most consistent entity in existence since the beginning. However, we all know that in our current society, marriage faces the biggest assault it has ever faced since the beginning of time. Divorce has permeated our culture for decades now and the anticipated results of “marriage-absence” have arrived along with it. And the cost to the country is significantly greater than you might think.
If you thought this was a strictly personal issue, you need to analyze the cost from some new thinking perspectives. First, let’s try to analyze the reason for “marriage-absence”. Some propose the reason for this problem is based with the government having created laws beginning back in the Kennedy/Johnson era that make it easier for people to survive alone without the benefit of marriage. This would be the reason for the huge social welfare system that we now have. Others would suggest that the upheavals of society that occurred in the 1960’s led to a decline in the perceived value of marriage in our society. Such social upheaval as drugs, “free love”, the feminist movement and resulting gender wars, the push for women to take a different role in society, the development of more reliable birth control and the general changes that occurred in the social mores’ of society led to the decline of marriage and the reaction of the government that led to the massive welfare system was the reaction of the government to a changing society.
Whatever you believe the reason for the decline of marriage to be, the cost to American Society is huge. We have already indicated the financial cost of the social welfare system which is an enormous and growing part of our budget. Of course there are many other costs which are not generally considered. The cost of having inadequate parental supervision of children at home has led to a large number of ills in our society that both decrease the overall quality of our life, but create other enormous expenses. A child not properly supervised by absent parents is a child who will tend to gravitate toward lower educational skills, drugs, criminal activity, disrespect of adults and society, gangs, teen pregnancy, jail or juvenile detention, etc. All of these activities take us down a fiscally expensive path also. There is lost potential from lack of education; more attempts at abortion or children raising children alone (hence an increase in the welfare rolls); drug rehabilitation or the cost of criminal activity associated with drugs and on and on. This crisis has led to significant cost to women and children who now live in poverty, unsafe neighborhoods. Women have to work more and there just isn’t time to get everything done. Of course we cannot even begin to measure the emotional loss and feeling of safety for everyone involved.
Social Science, psychology, and history tell us that the tendency of society has always been toward monogamous, heterosexual marriage. This has been the norm for all of history. Whether you believe this is a religious, genetic, or otherwise innate behavior, it is certainly a behavior that is desirable from many standpoints. People benefit from and actually prefer marriage to “marriage-absence”. It is good for society; good for people; good for the economy and generally produces a happier existence for all involved. The problem we face today is that there are now generations of people that have no real or genuine role models or experiences that teach them how to be married and how to be effective parents since "marriage-absence" has existed for such a long period of time now. Therefore, people will have to be retrained in how to do these things.
In light of all these issues, I am introducing a new plan for my campaign. I suppose that I assumed that people would understand automatically that I am a strong supporter of marriage and family due to my background. However, since I have never stated it, I am stating that now. In fact, I intend to be very proactive in this issue on the basis that whether the laws of the government created this dilemma or whether they perpetuate the dilemma, there is a significant fiscal savings to be had by making it easier for people to return to traditional heterosexual marriage and family. While the vast majority of details regarding marriage and family are conducted and controlled by the states, there are certainly some aspects which are presently controlled by the federal government.
Since I am a strong states’ rights advocate, I leave the power over marriage and family with the states. However, where there is federal intervention, I intend to work diligently to make the “marriage absence” issue a priority. And I pledge to work as closely with the states as possible to help them be able to reorganize their circumstances so as to bring about the enormous fiscal savings that can be achieved by embracing this issue also. It is proposed that there could be a cost savings to the state of Missouri alone in the area of $250 million per year by correcting the problem of “marriage-absence”. These are figures that cannot be ignored, and the other benefits and cost factors just increase the benefit to all of us. We cannot just stand by while the cost of this crisis is passed along to taxpayers and businesses.
I am asking that you please stand with me as we seek to reverse one of the largest expenses to our budget (A budget item that can be massively reduced while bringing back a happier and healthier America). Please support me now and at the polls on August 3rd.
John Wayne Tucker
http://www.johnwaynetucker.com
*The Bold Pursuit presents “Patriot’s Platform: Your Candidates, Their Words…” for city, state and national candidates for office. The Patriot’s Platform is a forum for the candidates to express their views and positions on the issues. Publication in the Patriot’s Platform is a public service, not an endorsement. We urge our readers to thoroughly review the candidates and cast their votes accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment