wedlock

At the time it was created, having a kid out of wedlock was strongly taboo.

The best data to support his assertion is the out of wedlock birthrate.

Some people would be offended by being called a bastard, because of it's meaning of being born out of wedlock.

That's more sympathetic than having an out of wedlock child and baby momma.

Can you say more about "social pressure against out-of-wedlock births"?

Lots of testimonies about his out of wedlock child, drug use, and dishonesty.

When those terrible things were in full effect, the out of wedlock birth rate was flat and relatively low. Lower than the white out of wedlock birthrate is today.

Are you actually suggesting that having unplanned kids out of wedlock before you are ready is a good idea?

Likely because Alois was born out of wedlock and wanted to rid himself of his old surname once he became established.

It was framed that way at a time when having a baby out of wedlock was a huge taboo, so most poor, single moms were "the deserving poor": Widows.

Up until the 60s, in spite of all the horrific racism, the out of wedlock birth rate was still below 20% for african americans.

Marriage as an institution virtually disappears within the US, with over 75% of babies born out of wedlock.

In the grand scheme, wedlock is a relatively flimsy shelter against the storm of reality... but I agree that it's definitely a shelter.

"I think the teen pregnancy phenomenon is part of a larger phenomenon of people having children out of wedlock, and then the mothers raising them as single parents.

As the article above points out, it is based on the common-law assumption that a child born in wedlock is the husband's unless he's impotent, sterile, or "beyond the four seas" when the child is conceived.

Previously, a child born out of wedlock was called a bastard and avoided at all cost, and had different rights than their legitimate siblings, now close to 50% of births in the US are born to unwed mothers.

It starts you out as a single parent with no savings and evidently no family members who will help you out...without any acknowledgement of the fact that broken homes, divorce, out-of-wedlock births, a lack of a high school diploma, and a failure to save are the major causes of poverty.

> "It starts you out as a single parent with no savings and evidently no family members who will help you out...without any acknowledgement of the fact that broken homes, divorce, out-of-wedlock births, a lack of a high school diploma, and a failure to save are the major causes of poverty.

Yes, there absolutely are policies that encourage people to climb to a perch from which it is incredibly easy to fall: social pressure against out-of-wedlock births; ineffective sexual education; social stigma against and a lack of services providing female reproductive health in general, contraceptives, emergency contraceptives and abortion; the structure of our health system disincentivizing preventative medical care in general; bankruptcy 'reform'; predatory lending practices; social stigma against the trades; corporate abuse of the safety net to depress wages; college grants and their unregulated effect on tuition; the college loan system in general; regressive taxation; child tax credits; safety net rewards based on family size; the jarring transition between qualifying for social safety net programs and not qualifying; military rewards based on family size; subsidized sprawl and a lack of public transportation; zero-tolerance laws and policies; substandard school districts; etc.