Royal wedding marks "marriage gap" between social reality, cultural messages

Mona Charen write:

For the past several decades, we've been conducting an experiment to determine whether marriage really matters all that much to society. The results are in. But the news hasn't yet been taken on board. ... Among the upper middle class, marriage continues to be the norm. Among the lower middle class, though, marriage rates have collapsed. This has created a cultural gulf between classes in America that affects every aspect of life and arguably threatens the cohesion of America itself. ... marriage is crucial because it "civilizes men." Married men don't just earn more and have significantly lower rates of criminality, substance abuse, depression and poor health than single men. They also contribute more social capital to society. Married men are far more likely to coach little league, volunteer at church and shovel their elderly neighbor's walk. Married people, far more than singles (there are exceptions, of course), take responsibility not just for themselves and their children, but for the community.

Comments

[James Hess]

This blog post seems to highlight the responsibility factor that comes with marriage. Do not get me wrong, I believe that single men do great acts of service to the community, but often they are not trying to be role models. Married men tend to want to go the extra step to impress their mate and especially impress their kids.
Marriage is one of the most important relationships that any one can have in life. I write about unrealistic expectations in marriage and how they can hurt the relationship in an article titled, "save my marriage today." I think that setting examples, instead of setting expectations is one of the best ways to help communities and marriages at the same time.