Fifty-four percent of Americans say that they harbor little optimism about the economy going forward. Thirty-three percent say that they are pessimistic about both the tradition of marriage and their prospects for it in the future.
Researchers from the Pew Research Center – which describes itself as “a nonpartisan fact tank that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world” – prefer to spin that rather negative viewpoint in a positive direction, at least as regards the opinion on marriage. As bad as it looks in the future to fully one third of Americans, it still looks like a better deal than the national economy.
Still, and with the prevalence of divorce throughout the country from its very inception, marriage doesn’t simply look like a very enticing prospect to millions of Americans. Twenty-eight percent say they thought it was obsolete back in 1978; now forty-percent have the same view.
What gives, and why the negativity? Pew pollsters attribute it at least partially to the bleak economy that presently features, which tends to sour outlooks on just about everything. Marriage is just biting the bullet, along with much else.
Statistics show something else at work, though, as well, namely, a long-term decline in Americans who get and stay married. In 1960, for example, about three quarters of all adults were married. Two years ago that number stood at 52 percent.
Related Resource: www.mainstreet.com “The End of Marriage in America?”