We’d not say Gary Becker was always right

But Gary Becker was always interesting. Further, we gain illumination from using his methods - let us apply economic thinking to possibly non-economic subjects:

But what could be putting young girls, and women, off marriage?

Incentives, d’ye see? Time was - and that was until very recently in a societal sense - that single parent families simply died. The whole pair bonding, partial monogamy and so on is that it takes the determined efforts of two adults to raise a brood of children. This is just something about the human condition, our hugely, vastly, long helpless childhoods and so on.

We’ve now changed this. In those purely economic terms - food upon the table, roof over head etc - two adults are no longer required. The state - the welfare state - has taken that economic place. We could also say that it’s the economic liberation of women - it’s possible to go out and work on equal terms now. Whichever, marriage is no longer necessary in order to be able to run a household.

We can say whatever we like about what follows from that. The glorious freedom of not being tied to another for these economic reasons. The absence of children growing up with examples of both genders. Really, discuss and think of whatever - but these are all downstream from the original observation.

People need to get married less therefore people are getting married less. We are a richer, freer, society and these are good things in and of themselves.

Now, it’s entirely possible that there are other issues as well - the price of housing is oft mentioned and so on. But we do have to start out with that very basic analysis, the two adult household is no longer a necessary, in this economic sense, feature of society. Therefore it isn’t.

Tim Worstall