The Inequality That Matters

Megan McArdle is stirring up trouble again, writing about "the inequality that matters":

"Marriage has basically followed the same path as income over the last 50 years. The college-educated have it better than ever -- they are enjoying what Harvard researcher Kathryn Edin calls 'superrelationships,' characterized by extremely high levels of rapport, cooperation and satisfaction. The bottom two thirds, on the other hand, are in unstable relationships that tend to break apart under stress. They typically have at least one child before they marry, experts told me, and when they do marry, it’s not to the father of their child. This is bad for the people in these relationships, and for the children they produce."

I think that over the last 50 years we have followed a lot of policies that were supposed to help the "bottom two thirds", but that have instead hurt them.

To a frightening extent, when you install welfare policies to help a group, bad things follow for that group.

The wrong kind of assistance
impairs a person's existence.