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faithfulness in
marriage.
The Bible's emphasis on family
is present at its beginning and end.
1n the beginning, in Genesis, God
establishes marriage for Adam and
Eve. At the end, in Revelation,
Christ returns to marry His Bride,
the true Church.
Perhaps because secular econo–
mists do not pay much attention to
these doctrines they do not realize
just how important families are to
prosperity!
Time and Patlence
The key is time. When a man mar–
ríes and has a family, his view of
time
changes. He is less likely to live for
the moment, to dissipate his income
in riotous living, or leave his job or
work willy-nilly to pursue sorne per–
sonal whim. In short, he is more like–
ly to become a
responsible.
produc–
tive member of the community. The
insurance companies, of course, rec–
ognize this truth, granting lower
rates to married than single meo, all
else being equal.
Marriage, and especially chil–
dren, orient people to the future.
One begins to think of children's
education, of the family's material
welfare. Suddenly, it becomes
important to work and save toward
the future, to develop economic
skills and produce a steady
income.
Of course, not all men do right,
economically, by their families. One
of the most terrible woes in this pres–
ent evil world is when aman,
other–
wise able.
does not heed the biblical
rule to ..provide for those of his own
house"
{1
Timothy 5:8). Theworld is
full of stories of drunken or profli–
gate fathers who squánder their
earnings while their farrlilies sutfer.
Clearly, marriage and family are not
enough by themselves to make a roan
a responsible, productive citizen.
And, of course, there are many,
many single persons who are very
responsible and productive people.
(Such people are likely to be thechil–
dren of responsible, stable, produc–
tive families!)
But, as George Gilder points out
in his recent and highly perceptive
book
Wealth and Poverty,
an
intact, stable family unit is a virtual
requirement to Iift people from
poverty to prosperity. The main
motivation for a poor man, in par-
32
ticular, to faithfully work and save
over a period of years is family
responsibility.
One
of the reasons
for the prosperity of Northern
Europe, after 1600, relative to the
rest of the world, was that meo
were expected to
support their
families by themselves.
Conse–
quently, people delayed marriage
and children until they acquired
sorne savings or economic skill.
One of the most fascinating sta–
tistics, author Gilder reports, is
that one .of the key features that
distinguishes poor communities
from others is the greater relative
presence of unmarried people! Poor
communities often have more than
their share of unmarried people.
Such people often live hand
to
mouth, "unable to plan or save or
~~
An intact, stable family
unit is a virtual
requirement to lift
people from poverty to
prosperity.
' '
keep a job." Again, the key is time.
Studies of certain poor people in
modero societies show that they
often live for the present, the
now.
They do not care about the future .
Mr. Gilder stresses that for meo in
the world, it often takes family
responsibilities to make a man
future
oriented. The proverbial
"carefree" life of single meo, by
contrast, shows their
present
orien–
tation. Why forego pleasuré today
for the sake of tomorrow? For
many meo in this world, the only
reason would be their families.
Now consider the astounding
findings of two recent surveys.
Town and Country
magazine
interviewed the meo who are at the
top of America's top 100 compa–
nies.
It
found 95 percent of these
highly successful meo are still mar–
ried to their first wives!
A specialist at the Harvard Med–
ica! School, George E. Vallian·t,
was puzzled by the survey: "1 have
to confess this is unexpected," he
said. "I would have thought the
cost of success in such huge corpo–
rations might have gotten in the
way of their marriages."
Actually, the results shouldn't be
puzzling at all. Stable marriages
created order and gave purpose to
these men's lives that many single
or divorced do not have. Stable
borne life actually liberates drive
and productivity in a man, because
he becomes future oriented. Rising
to the top of a major corporation
requires a great deal of diligence,
preparation, patience and steady
performance of work. A future–
oriented married man is more like–
ly to have these qualities than the
single man whose focus is on living
for today.
Secondly, of course, aman who is
willing to exercise the necessary char–
acter to keep his marriage intact (par–
ticularly in these permissive times!) is
also likely to have the character and
self-discipline to achieve better suc–
cess (therefore
economic
success) in a
large corporation.
Town and Country's
survey is
confirmed by another study by
University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School
of Management. It found 89 per–
cent of l,700 top executives have
been married only once, and 95
percent of these were currently
married.
Such statistics accord with find–
ings of the Institute for Research
on Poverty at the University of
Wisconsin, cited in George Gilder's
book. The lnstitute reports hus–
bands work 50 percent harder
(meaning number of hours and
weeks a year in paid employment
outside the borne) than bachelors
with comparable age, education
and skills.
"The etfect of marriage," Mr.
Gilder concludes, "is to increase
the work etfort of meo by about
half."
On the other hand, a divorced
man is more likely to undergo a
drop in income, and is more prone
to take to drink, drugs and crime.
After divorce, meo are more prone
to mental illness, and "self-destruc–
tive" diseases, such as cirrhosis of
the liver. Divorced meo are far
more likely to commit suicide than
their married counterparts. No
doubt much of this self-destructive
The PLAIN TRUTH