I quote at some length from a column by Michael Barone, a noted political commentator on our current economic situation. These words ( emphasis added by me) leapt out at me as more than merely economic and political commentary:
"Economists aren't entirely sure why. Rising manufacturing productivity and foreign competition have played a role. But another factor may be at work -- what tech entrepreneur Jim Manzi identifies in an article in National Affairs as "the growing disparity in behavioral norms and social conditions between the upper and lower income strata in American society."
America, his argument goes, is failing to develop the human capital it needs, at least in what we might call the under half of our society.
Manzi notes that the behavioral revolution of the 1960s and 1970s produced much higher divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth rates. Then, in the last two decades, those rates fell back to 1950s levels among college graduates. But they've remained high, or even increased, among non-college graduates.
It's clear that there's a high correlation between lifestyle patterns and economic performance. Almost no one who graduates from high school, gets married and stays married, and gets a job falls into poverty. Many who do not do these things do. "
I believe Mr. Barone is here touching on a reality that most of us sense is true from observation and experience; the expression of which is discouraged by a "politcally correct" and "value-free" culture.
One of the bed-rock "principles" of the popular culture for decades has been that no sexual behavior, no self-indulgence, no "personal choice" carries any inherent moral value; and indeed. is exempt from any moral or social criticism. To express unease with, much less disapproval of, phenomena such as "gay marriage", "single parenthood", people living together as "fiancees" for years with no intent to marry, etc. all expose one to charges of "bigotry", "homophobia", etc.
Yet, Nature, as they say, will not be mocked.
Sexual promiscuity, sexual deviance, adultery, drunkeness, gluttony, vulgarity, sloth are still as "deadly" and as ruinous as ever, whatever we choose to call them.