RECOMMENDED READING
We live in a diverse country, where people have a lot of different preferences about how to live. For example, a 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that 59 percent of Americans believed children with two parents were better off if one parent stayed at home, but 39 percent thought children were just as well off if both parents worked.
So which side was right? Well, obviously, neither. It depends on the personality, values and circumstances of the people in each particular family. Despite what Tolstoy wrote, happy families are in fact all happy in their own ways.
Our debates about family structure have been poisoned by people who canāt acknowledge difference without immediately rendering some judgment. Family pluralism is a source of strength for this country, not a weakness.
It should be said that peopleās views on what is the ideal family form are powerfully linked to their class standing. As research by scholars at the American Compass think tank has shown, people in the working class and to a lesser extent the middle class are more likely to prefer the ābreadwinnerā model, in which one parent stays home, when children are younger than 5. Families making more than $150,000 are more likely to admire the ādual earnerā model, in which both parents work.
Recommended Reading
Big Tech Is Exploiting Kids Online. Congress Has To Step In
Chris Griswold makes the case for protecting children online through the Kids Online Safety Act
āCollege for Allā Is Broken. Letās Embrace Opportunity Pluralism Instead.
Bruno Manno features a recent American Compass survey on higher education in a discussion of the failures of the ācollege-for-allā model.
Families Deserve Dedicated Relief. Senator Hawley to the Rescue?
The pandemic has placed an enormous burden on the lives of parents and children in particular.