You ready for this? From Josh Marshall, I present to you Prof. Isaac Ehrlich, SUNY Buffalo:
"Current Social Security systems in the U.S. and elsewhere have someunintended consequences, which include disincentives to form familiesand have children," explains Ehrlich, who also is Melvin H. BakerProfessor of American Enterprise in UB School of Management.
… The study found that among the 54 countries studied with pay-as-you-gosocial security programs, the average annual marriage rate(net-of-divorce) fell from 9.72 per 1,000 people in 1960 to 6.40 in1990, and the average total fertility rate (the average number ofchildren born to an average woman during her reproductive years) fellfrom 3.82 in 1965 to 2.07 in 1989. In the U.S., the marriage rate fellfrom 9.17 in 1960 to 6.39 in 1990, and the fertility rate fell from 2.9in 1965 to 2.0 in 1989.
GONG! Correlation still is not causation, Professor. Thanks for playing!
