That should be relatively easy to discern by comparing, like, the top quintile of single-mother households in income terms to the bottom quintile. Perhaps additionally control for race/ethnicity to remove that potential factor.

If fatherlessness is indeed the main driver the differences between the two quintiles should be small. If however poverty is the main driver, the difference should be big. This is quite obvious, didn't Sampson do such a check?
The question is what should be considered "normal".

According to the statistical yearbook of Zürich, a hundred years ago, some 12% of the births by Swiss mothers in Zürich were out of wedlock vs 30% among foreigners. Considering the social stigma then, which is no longer present, that's close enough to today's figures in the US to not make a meaningful difference for me. Perhaps data on the post-WW2 decennials are the outlier, rather than the norm one should compare to.

Just a question. In the schools in the USA they always play the national hymn. What would happen if one refuses to stand. Would you be beaten up?

Only at sporting events, not in schools.

Tom

mmmmm not sure about that?

Forced to pledge allegiance to the flag, along with an outdated bag of Cheetos.

Quite sure about that.

Tom

And even then, only in grade school, never at high-school or university.

Tom

About 50% of schools still do this, but kids can of course opt out.

Pledge, yes, national anthem, no.

Tom

LOL, the Christians should argue this with "Thou shalt have no other gods beside me"

Which makes it worse!

It's not even required by law to stand for the pledge or even participate. Quite a few US teachers have made a lot of trouble for themselves by forcing kids to stand.

Back in the day, there weren't many effective contraceptives. A child born out of wedlock would most probably have been an "accident". Social norms and stigma would pretty much have prevented most people from doing that intentionally.

Today social norms and attitudes have changed and nobody bats an eyelid if you're unmarried with child.

You've quoted a "source" provided by a website with an agenda. Give us the exact reference for your data -- a link to the web page or a page number in a quoted document.

Stgenteman has been away to long

Which is kind of my point (or part thereof). 30% births out of wedlock then vs 40% now is a small/negligible difference considering the social norms way back then and the means available for birth control today.

the tax penalty for being married here would also account for a fair chuck of it too.

The tax penalty for married couples has been largely removed, only some 80k couples are negatively affected these days according to the CVP (who want the number to be high). And nobody speaks of the benefits they get, in particular better protection and an additional rent if either dies.

Which version? Fergie's?

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...226-story.html

https://www.englishforum.ch/images/s...sn/msnnerd.gif

I am always being amazed by Trump. Now he is really showing his courage. He would have saved the students. He would not have waited outside -he would have immediately run in and saved everyone. I thought that happened only in Tom Cruise films?