This was the compelling headline of a recent article by Ben Shapiro in the Daily Signal as he discussed a worrisome new poll from NBC news of young men and women between the ages of 18-29. They were given the question “Which is important to your personal definition of success?” with 13 options. Each of the respondents could pick 3.
For both men and women, the top three choices were:
- Having a job or career that you find fulfilling.
- Having enough money to do the things you want to do.
- Achieving financial independence.
Then down the line were things like having emotional stability, using your talents and resources to help somebody, and owning your own home.
But where in this list did the idea of having children and getting married fall? Both tumbled to nearly the bottom of the list, with women putting having children at tenth place and being married at eleventh. Men were much the same, tilting to wanting marriage and children somewhat more than women did. For them, being married was in seventh place, and having children was in eighth.
What does it mean that the desire to be married and form families has dipped so far? Nothing good.
“This is disastrous,” wrote Shapiro.
“Any society that does not make its number one focus — not number two, not number three — getting married and having kids, is a society doomed to failure because that is the priority of any society. You cannot pass your values on to the next generation if there is no next generation. And you can’t pass your values on to the next generation if you have no values.
“Any society that believes yearning for individualistic pursuits — as shown here by the number two priority being having enough money to do the things you want to do — any society that is focused on hedonistic personal fulfillment is a society that is doomed to failure.
“People will stop having kids. People will stop getting married. People will not be happy. And when they are not happy, because it turns out that the fruits of economics are not enough to make you happy, they will turn on the economics themselves, because you cannot fill that family-shaped hole in the heart with cash.”
