EL CONCEPTO de familia tradicional es algo de enorme trascendencia económica, no sólo una cuestión de valores sociales:

[R]ising income inequality, wealth disparities, and disproportionate health outcomes are all impossible to understand without taking a hard look at families. As Jason DeParle wrote last year in The New York Times that “changes in marriage patterns — as opposed to changes in individual earnings — may account for as much as 40% of the growth in certain measures of inequality.” David Leonhardt, also of the Times, noted a recent finding that “family structure was one of the four factors with a clear relationship to upward mobility.” As Schulz himself found, only 5% of married families were poor at any point this year, while 30% of single-parent households felt the blow of poverty. These data points paint a bleak portrait; those being raised without a mother and a father will face immense social and economic barriers.

The end result is that American families now seem to follow two tracks: those of the upper-middle class, where family institutions remain relatively strong, and those of the lower-middle class, where family instability is distressingly common.

Leedlo entero. Se refiere a EEUU, pero no debería ser muy distinto en España. De hecho el que España soporte cifras astronómicas de paro sin que se incendien las calles podría deberse en buena parte (además de al empleo sumergido) a que la familia tradicional sigue siendo prevalente y funciona como 'red asistencial'. Como decía Bill Bennett, ex secretario de Educación de EEUU, y que cita el artículo que enlazo, "family is the original and best Department of Health, Education, and Welfare."