Family Values

I know many people read a headline about gays getting married or schools teaching children about contraception and get all worked up that families are under attack. I think that is ludicrous, but that doesn't mean I don't see evidence of an assault on the institution of the family. Today's Washington Post features such evidence:

The statistics offered a mixed picture of the economy's ongoing recovery from the recession of 2000-2001. While median household income rose for the second consecutive year in 2006, the increase appeared to be driven by a jump in the number of people in each household taking on full-time jobs, rather than a rise in wages.

The addition of 2.2 million people to the roster of the uninsured was attributed largely to continuing declines in employer-sponsored insurance coverage.

So, last year, the average American family became more likely to need to send another family member to work to keep up, and yet they also became less likely to be insured. I'm no scientist, but I am going to guess that decreasing time with family and losing insurance create more strain on families than sex ed.