The Two-Parent Privilege How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind

In her new book *The Two-Parent Privilege*, the economist Melissa Kearney says it's time for liberals to face the facts: U.S. marriage rates have plummeted but the babies keep coming, and the U.S. now leads the world in single-parent households.

Her new book is called *The Two-Parent Privilege*, How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind.

It's really challenging to discuss the topics of marriage and family without it feeling like a conversation about values.

And I reject that response.

The reason why I thought it was important to say that is because a lot of social scientists will look at the exact same data as me.

Melissa Carney's new book The Two Parent Advantage, you know, looks at this through a policy-wank DC lens, right? There's very little ideology coming into this.

I had Melissa Carney who wrote The Two Parents Advantage recently and I think a book comes out today and it's causing all manner of a shit storm on Twitter which is just fantastic it doesn't surprise me

What has the response been like to you writing a book called The Two Parent Advantage How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind?

It's a lot of it is wow you're brave and it really shouldn't be that brave.

And then sort of more quietly people are like this makes a lot of sense and I'm glad you're talking about this so I've been actually really encouraged by the response I'm getting and the other sort of set of responses that have been particularly validating or bolstering to me are from people who work in the communities really impacted by the decline in the two-parent family groups that work with single moms, unmarried parents.

The things I was really worrying about like did I miss something? Did I not connect the dots in some particular way that I'm missing and I haven't gotten any negative reactions that's made me question anything I've written in the book.

If you expect an absolute shit storm and just get a small amount of shit I guess that or an okay amount of shit that proportionally that should be fine.

One called Get Married by Brad Wilcox who has been on the show in October and one called The Two-Parent Privilege by Melissa Kearney, which I've talked about on the show in previous monologues.