How Utah keeps it alive.
I think that Mormonism is the most American of religions, being home grown. I also think that they’re most likely to be successful space colonists.
[Update a few minutes later]
I hadn’t RTWT when I posted the link, but there are very interesting points in it:
Utah has not entirely escaped the change, but it is relatively insulated; the state leads the nation for marriage and for children with married parents. How do we get Utah’s results without marriage?
“Why don’t we use what we have?” Price asked. “You’ve got this institution that has worked for thousands of years.” And yet, he said, “there’s a reluctance to use the word ‘marriage’ in public policy.”
People who don’t see why you need a marriage certificate to make a stable home for a child may be skewed by their own social position, Price said: “We’re always looking at the wrong group — the high-income group.” He added: “The people who are doing the research are the people who don’t need marriage.”
Utah’s unique religious history not only democratized the relationships between the affluent and the struggling; it also democratized marriage, at a time when elsewhere in the U.S., marriage seems to be morphing into an elite institution. Price thinks that gives the state a huge boost in launching kids into the middle class, and Chetty et al’s data back that up.
This does raise some questions about the viability of Utah’s “compassionate conservative” model outside the state. The vast welfare infrastructure from the Mormon Church naturally makes it easier to have smaller government. Perhaps that could be replicated by other communities. But the values of the Mormon Church may create a public that simply needs less help. That’s harder for another community to imitate. I’m not sure this key ingredient is available in a secular version; I think religion might only come in religion flavor.
How the heck is some state government supposed to get people to marry, and stay married?
Another argument to get government out of the marriage business (and a lot of other businesses).
“How the heck is some state government supposed to get people to marry, and stay married?”
Well, they could subsidize it. I realize this is a bit snarky, but in all honesty the old adage of “tax it and get less of it, subsidize it and get more of it” might find a way to come into play. Not that I want more government intrusion into anyone’s lives…
How the heck is some state government supposed to get people to marry, and stay married?
Stop subsidizing bastardy for one. Also perhaps recognizing that marriage doesn’t exist to validate or support peoples feelings, but rather to guarantee paternity. Of course that would entail recognizing that fathers matter and that civilization is built and maintained by men.
Outlawing abortion and contraception would also encourage responsible behavior, but that’s even less likely IMO.
So to answer the larger question: it ain’t gonna happen.
Outlawing abortion and contraception would also encourage responsible behavior, but that’s even less likely IMO.
At least till you get the out of wedlock births, then it’d encourage poverty. At some point, we need to realize that people are far from perfect in a far from perfect world.
“I also think that they’re most likely to be successful space colonists.” You’ve been watching The Expanse haven’t you (or, of course, read the books)?
Haven’t read the books, only started watching the series.
Struggled through the first season and recently abandoned the show barely into the second season. The Mormon angle was about the only thing even faintly plausible about the whole setup. Everything else was just the Nth dreary rehash of a progressive dystopian vision, mixed with non-religious progressive mysticism, this one just happening to be set in space – or what passed for space. Gaaah!
Leviathan Wakes is the first, looks like about 9 bucks paperback. I’d recommend picking it up and at least starting it. For me it was a page-turner from page one.
We can’t get government “out of the marriage business” unless we outlaw divorce. When a couple breaks up most of the arguing is over who gets what, which means we need a set of laws covering that.
According to the Expanse the Mormons funded the first interstellar generation ship.
Yes, the Nauvoo, named for the town where the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred. With an enormous golden statue of the Angel Moroni on the pointy end.
A crucial question at the end of the article was:
“Why not look for more promising scripts than the ones played out across the U.S. today?”
Because those scripts played out across the US today are integral to convincing our political community to hire more college graduates and thus expand the market for college administrators and tenured professors.
I am reminded of Washington’s farewell address:
“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
The mormons, as a group, have struck a better balance between “r” vs. “k” selected strategies for population growth. The religion also encouraged community trust, which is sorely lacking when looking at the USA in larger perspective. As a culture, they still honor traditional roles, especially of men, even when modernity has to be taken into consideration. I think the more interesting & troubling question is not to explain why mormons are doing so much better than the rest of the broader culture, but rather why has the rest of the culture so rapidly diverged from similar success in just a few decades.
People that can help themselves should not be comfortable with welfare. I think Benjamin Franklin made this simple point.