From Maggie Gallagher on NRO. All

right, it’s early in the week–but this one will last and last.

“The answer to this question [i.e. ‘Do we need marriage?’] is, I think,

abundantly clear from 40 years of experimentation both here and in Europe.

The consequences of our current retreat from marriage is not a flourishing

libertarian social order, but a gigantic expansion of state power and a vast

increase in social disorder and human suffering. The results of the marriage

retreat are not merely personal or religious. When men and women fail to

form stable marriages, the first result is a vast expansion of government

attempts to cope with the terrible social needs that result. There is

scarcely a dollar that state and federal government spends on social

programs that is not driven in large part by family fragmentation: crime,

poverty, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, school failure, mental and physical

health problems. Even Medicare spending is inflated, as elderly singles

spend more of their years in nursing homes.”