Over the past 15 years the rate of marriage had dropped precipitously from a national average of 11.6 marriages per 1000 adults in 1990 to 8.9 marriages per 1000 adults in 2004 (the latest date for which the CDC carries these statistics). Several demographic reasons have been posited as to why this erosion of the family unit is occurring.

The most celebrated of the expository books on the subject is Barbara Defoe's "Why There Are No Good Men Left: The Romantic Plight of the New Single Woman". Ms. Defoe posits the highly plausible explanation that women and men are postponing marriage until a later time. And while that sounds reasonable and may, in fact, be part of the reason for the initial decline, the math simply doesn't add up.

If such a postponement were taking place, Marriage rates would initially fall dramatically for a period of time. That fall should, after 10 to 12 years, begin to reverse itself as those singles begin to marry 10 to 12 years later. But that's not happening and there is no evidence to suggest that marriage rates are on the rise.

Instead there is evidence that the marriage rate decline is accelerating. The reason being is that this is the first generation of men of marriageable age are not postponing marriage, they are declining marriage completely. This generation has witnessed the devastation wrought upon their fathers by the advent of the no fault divorce. Over seventy percent of no fault divorces are initiate by women. Boys witness the disappearance of their fathers and/or discover that their father's have been impoverished by the divorce process because the divorce laws heavily favor women in deciding custody and alimony arrangements.

Another factor that has become prevalent in recent years is the number of couples that are cohabitating. Many men believe that they are better protected financially from a bad divorce if they do not marry. That remains to be seen as the rise in palimony suits attests that this tactic will not work in men's favor either.

And a final factor that contributes to the decline in marriage rates is the willingness of adults to engage in intimate relationships without having the emotional attachments that will lead to marriage. Thank the sixties sexual revolution for this development.

So men are making a financial decision based upon their observation of what happened to their fathers. If one in every two marriages ends in divorce, and men are stripped completely of current and future assets in a divorce, why would any man in his right mind want to get married?

So men are asking, Why buy the cow, when they can get the milk for free? And the answer is a resounding NO to marriage. Once again government intrusiveness has done more harm than good.

References:

The Marriage Strike
CDC Divorce Statistics
Ten Myths about divorce - from Health.Discovery.com

Divorce Myth 10: It is usually men who initiate divorce proceedings.

Fact: Two-thirds of all divorces are initiated by women. One recent study found that many of the reasons for this have to do with the nature of our divorce laws. For example, in most states women have a good chance of receiving custody of their children. Because women more strongly want to keep their children with them, in states where there is a presumption of shared custody with the husband the percentage of women who initiate divorces is much lower. Also, the higher rate of women initiators is probably due to the fact that men are more likely to be "badly behaved." Husbands, for example, are more likely than wives to have problems with drinking, drug abuse, and infidelity.