This new Brad Wilcox study–see Kathryn’s interview here–is profoundly depressing. I write about it today. What we’re seeing is a portion of Middle America increasingly alienated from marriage, and from the habits and attitudes that make for bourgeois success. This is a formula for continued stratification in our society, and for the further stalling-out of mobility. As a general matter, income inequality doesn’t bother me–it’s inevitable. As a wise man once said, you can make a society twice as wealthy, but you can’t make everyone twice as wealthy as everyone else. That said, this kind of chart is quite disturbing:
I think conservatives need to spend more time thinking about all of this, and what our solutions–if any–are to it. I know I’d begin with a crack-down on illegal immigration. At a time of high unemployment and wage stagnation for people without college degrees, we don’t need people from other countries flooding into the United States to take low-skill jobs and drive down wages.