Dating Apps Exacerbate the Crisis Around Forming Long-lasting Relationships

• Sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin has observed that marriage—to the extent it is desired at all—is now viewed as a “capstone” rather than a “cornerstone” of life.
• These shifts in beliefs have affected marriage rates. But technologies like the smart phone, social media, and online dating have exacerbated the family formation crisis for the youngest generations.  
• Technology is not solely to blame for the modern lack of relationship formation. Being spiritually bereft and lost as a society is the underlying woundedness that makes us vulnerable to technological manipulation. If we better understood the human person and where human beings derive meaning, we would not be desperately grasping for belonging in a virtual world.

Schedule an Interview: Brenda Hafera

To Help Families Thrive, the Government Should Remove the Barriers That Hold Back Innovation and Flexibility

• Pursuing new, commonsense approaches to education reform and work–family policies will foster the conditions for family flourishing and increase birth rates for married couples
• Since 2008, the U.S. fertility rate fell from 2.1—right at replacement rate—to a record low of 1.6 births in 2020. 
• Public policy should support families as they form and grow, and can do so through reducing government regulatory overreach, directly funding students instead of institutions, and by removing barriers to a flexible workforce. 

Schedule an Interview: Lindsey Burke and Rachel Greszler

Work Requirements Are Less About Welfare Savings Than About Human Well-Being

• While saving federal funds is an important aspect of the debt-ceiling discussion, work requirements are also an essential piece of putting long-term well-being at the heart of our safety-net programs. 
• Welfare programs with work requirements have positive effects on recipients and society; namely, reducing poverty and increasing marriage.   
• The draft text for raising the debt ceiling includes several safety-net work-requirement changes, including work requirements for work-capable adults without children in both Medicaid and food stamps.   
• The federal government would save between $110 billion and $120 billion over 10 years as those who choose not to work would no longer receive those benefits. 

Schedule an Interview: Leslie Ford  and Robert Rector