es if he is raised without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high concentration of single-parent familiesNo one will argue that families are important to society, but how can one stop the cyclical effect of dysfunctional families. Since this is a societal problem, one must address how society can deal with the problem through government policy. Divorce is on the rise. Society used to define marriage as a union, before God, between a man and a woman. Government licensed this religious union to make it a binding legal contract. Marriage was seen as a lifetime commitment for better or for worse and there were few things that were strong enough to break that bond. Today however, couples are finding is easier to get divorced. Government has played a role in this by permitting no-fault divorce, which allows unilateral divorce for no reason at all. In effect, the contractual obligation of the marital union has been taken away. Our society has suffered from this. People today are more interested in themselves and their own feelings, leaving them blind to the effect their actions have on others, even their own children. As children grow up and see more divorces, or even experience a divorce in their family, they learn by example that giving up on a marriage is plausible, acceptable, and even rewarding in some cases. A cyclical pattern emerges as youths learn to be self-fulfilling rather than family sustaining. This pattern of behavior must be stopped. The no-fault divorce has nullified the legal contract of marriage and reduces it to nothing but a ceremonial piece of paper, easily annulled or destroyed. Government must enforce the legal contract of marriage by making divorce more difficult. Another way government has failed society is by paying single mothers to have children, otherwise known as the welfare program. As previously mentioned, poverty is a societal ill. To remedy this problem, the government has established ...
