>we're farther from that goal than ever It's still plausible that the recent trend is an improvement (and that we're therefore closer to the broader goal of ge

>we're farther from that goal than ever It's still plausible that the recent trend is an improvement (and that we're therefore closer to the broader goal of general welfare, if not high marriage rates). There's less cultural pressure to marry, and so people abstain from marriage whose marriages likely would have ended unhappily, in divorce. A happy marriage is probably better than being single, but being single is probably better than an unhappy marriage.