Paul Krugman, "Money and Morals": Ask Newt Gingrich

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Money and Morals" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/opinion/krugman-money-and-morals.html?ref=opinion), Paul Krugman responds to the question of whether American values are in decline by noting that in the US there has been a dramatic drop in teenage pregnancies since 1990 and a large decrease in violent crime since the mid-90s. Krugman, however, observes:

"Still, something is clearly happening to the traditional working-class family. The question is what. And it is, frankly, amazing how quickly and blithely conservatives dismiss the seemingly obvious answer: A drastic reduction in the work opportunities available to less-educated men."

So is the high rate of divorce, for example, the consequence of "sharply rising inequality"? Perhaps this is a question that should be directed to Newt Gingrich, who appears to treat his spouses like automobiles and is always prepared to trade his wives in for newer models.

Births out of wedlock? As reported by USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-05-13-unmarriedbirths_N.htm):

"Among 14 countries analyzed in the report by the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of all live unmarried births in the USA — 40% in 2007 — ranks somewhere in the middle. That's up from 18% in 1980. The sharpest rise was from 2002 to 2007, the report found.

Countries with a higher proportion of births to unmarried mothers include Iceland, Sweden, Norway, France, Denmark and the United Kingdom; countries with a lower percentage than the USA include Ireland, Germany, Canada, Spain, Italy and Japan."

Apparently, the "problem" is not confined to the US, but rather reflects a growing trend in the West. Could it be that just when gay marriage is beginning to gain acceptance in the US, marriage as an institution is losing its appeal, as young people decide that they are unwilling to sacrifice short-term freedom for a long-term commitment demanding constant compromise?

Krugman concludes:

"So we should reject the attempt to divert the national conversation away from soaring inequality toward the alleged moral failings of those Americans being left behind. Traditional values aren’t as crucial as social conservatives would have you believe — and, in any case, the social changes taking place in America’s working class are overwhelmingly the consequence of sharply rising inequality, not its cause."

Sure, financial problems are apt to aggravate existing tensions in a marriage, but, as observed above, it appears that the West is divorcing itself from marriage. Moreover, the marital conduct of both Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump would appear to disprove the theorem that social change is largely the product of inequality.

I agree with Krugman that there has been a "drastic reduction in the work opportunities available to less-educated men" and that this harrowing trend will not improve so long as the US continues to outsource its manufacturing. And this is one more reason why even Joe Nocera agrees (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/opinion/nocera-the-poisoned-politics-of-keystone-xl.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) that Obama's rejection of Keystone XL was tragic.