The collapse of society

Hmmmm. Traditional values - ie, marriage - is declining in "the lower classes". Dreadful, right?

Except while right-wingers are complaining loudly about the end of values without being willing to admit that economic stress and joblessness are contributing to men's unwillingness to marry, they aren't admitting that teen pregnancy and crime and also way down. As Krugman says,

maybe traditional social values are eroding in the white working class — but maybe those traditional social values aren’t as essential to a good society as conservatives like to imagine.

And as one of his commenters says,

The collapse of society is seen in the number of people rejecting white Christian orthodoxy. The paradox is that rejection is good for society as a whole in that it encourages the full participation of groups excluded by white Christian orthodoxy.