The Marriage Penalty?

Christianity Today has a great editorial on the growing economic instability of the middle class family - and the fact that the de-facto solution (two income families) often exacerbates the problem rather than promoting a viable solution. The traditional marriage debate has made me wonder whether the crisis in our culture emerges more from the economic frailty of our prevailing societal and cutltural practices - or from the moral degeneracy of a the fringe? Here is what I think:

• The essential identity of the american as consumer drives us toward unsustainable economic habits (read greed and debt)
• The shrinking global economy (or shrinking American peice of thie pie) only makes this problem more immediate - bringing closer the scenarios that make a fragile lifestyle a chaotic one.
• When chaos emerges in family structures - marriage is lost.

Mark Oppenheimemer references Umberto Eco's taxonomy of counter-culture - making the point that only when a dissenting movement has viable sustainability can it truly be considered countercultural (ie dangerous to the esablishment) That makes me wonder whether the "fringe" - i.e. activists looking to alter our common and legislated understanding of marriage and family in our country - have found a way that is viable. Are they solving the economic and stability issues that plague our traditional families? Have stable marriage and well-parented kids become such a liability that they have to be sacrificed in order to live in the American middle class? My intuition is no. The scream and cry of the Traditional Marriage advocates is "they'll ruin our society". But this also seems impulsive and reactionary. I have yet to see evidence beyond the anecdotal ("we don't want to become like Sweeden") that "post marriage" societies are falling apart. (Please point them out to me...) Now don't get me wrong - I am a proud defender of marriage (i.e. my marriage). I think I have the best possible thing going. But I also know that I have rejected much that is considered "standard" in american culture. Our family lives on one income. We don't carry many of the "standard" financial obligations of the american middle class (Cable TV, High Speed Internet, 2 car payments, Long commutes, Private school tuition). And I think this is where the traditional marriage folks should pay attention. How can we make the two parent household a viable economic reality - so that the counterculture doesn't have to be providing an alternative?