Senator Mitt Romney’s recent proposal, the Family Security Act, aims to provide a dual benefit to families: a child allowance and a reformed Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). With the goals of incentivizing marriage and family, it has received praise across the political spectrum for its promise to alleviate poverty while “swapping out some programs that benefited these families in the past, and also by discontinuing the federal subsidy for high taxes in New York and California.”
Is This The Start of Something New?
A press release from the Senator’s office estimates that the proposal will “immediately lift 3 million children out of poverty,” while New York Magazine touts the astonishing 5-figure benefit expectant parents could receive starting in the third trimester of pregnancy through to their child’s eighteenth year. Just imagine how this kind of concrete assistance might benefit families now and in the long run: fewer work shifts means more time spent with the kids, less food insecurity, money for diapers and a little savings to set aside for the kids’ futures. In an instant, women with unplanned pregnancies may reconsider getting an abortion, the earners in single earner families may have more time to spend with the kids, and dating or cohabiting couples in lower tax brackets may start to view marriage as a real possibility. Economic measures like these could be potentially revelatory for those who are hesitant or who have otherwise never considered marriage and family as possibilities.
Economic Incentives Aren’t Enough
While a child allowance and the simplifications of EITC reform would do much to increase couples’ confidence in their ability to provide for their marriages and families, material assistance is only one step in the direction of a full-fledged, pro-family agenda. There are limitations to the kinds of societal transformation economic assistance can effect. For instance, as long as our institutions (especially academic ones) continue to send the message that work is only valuable insofar as it is paid, young people will continue to gather the impression that they should delay marriage and family in favor of a better job and a better situation. In other words, they need to be “perfectly settled” themselves before they can settle down.
Family (and Societal) Success Isn’t Just Material
No family can survive without material goods, let alone thrive. However, material goods alone are insufficient to create a stable, harmonious family life and to meet the need of every person for supportive, dependable, and unconditional relationships. A spiritual recognition of our relational obligations is needed in order to build up and restore healthy families. We should always resist the temptation to reduce familial flourishing to mere financial considerations, since even the most well-off of families can be plagued by dysfunction and neglect. All of us who live comfortably need to be reminded of our obligations toward our family members, and by extension, our community members. Each of us has a calling – no matter how much we make – to perform and to honor the physical and spiritual work of raising children and taking care of dependents. The value of unpaid work cannot be understated, as it is literally our lifeblood.
The Next Steps
Institutionally, we have a long way to go before we see meaningful change in the way people approach marriage and family. Domestic labors like child rearing, most often performed by women, are essential to society’s present and future, yet some advocate that they should be validated with pay. That such enormously challenging work deserves pay misses the point entirely. These silent acts of love, done without note, are the hidden sacrifices that bind families and communities together. We should encourage these acts of love from both wives and husbands, men and women, the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy, for they are the hallmark of a healthy democracy and a neighborly society. Universities should be encouraging marriage and family formation precisely because they benefit society and their students. If they are to continue to act in loco parentis, as they already do through abundant mental health initiatives, academic and career guidance, they also need to provide their students with meaningful encouragement when it comes to integrating career and family life. Otherwise, young people will learn that marriage and family are outdated and out-of-reach, and delay pursuit of that wonderful path in search of other pastures.
