Is Marriage the Solution to Reducing Poverty and Violence in America?

Could marriage be the answer to poverty and violence in America? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, having parents who are married decreases a child’s probability of living in a poor household by more than 80 percent ... that's better than any government program, Tucker Carlson pointed out.

Sheila Weber, the executive director of National Marriage Week USA, joined Fox and Friends to discuss the incredible statistic. Weber said this is an area she believes the left and right can come together on. “We don’t want this to be a campaign that makes [single parents] feel guilty

,” Weber stressed.

The Brookings Institution has concluded that if the U.S. had the marriage rates today that it had in 1970, there would be a 25 percent drop in poverty. In 1970, almost 80 percent of all American adults were married, compared to 52 percent now.

“Our message is that we want to help people break the cycle of poverty,” Weber said. “[…] if you graduate from high school, work full time, and postpone marriage and childbearing until after the age 21, you have only a two percent chance of being in poverty. If you don’t do those three things, you have a 77 percent chance of being in poverty.”

In addition to greater financial stability for the family, children reap several benefits. They perform better in school, get into less trouble with the law, and there are lower teen pregnancy and drug addiction rates.

Weber said the next generation will lack marital skills as a result of a loss of modeling. “We have celebrities who are modeling unwed parenthood but they have millions of dollars and they don’t realize that they’re modeling something for people who live paycheck to paycheck.”

Watch the fascinating interview:

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