New research estimates the taxpayer costs of divorce and unwed childbearing at $112 billion a year. That’s over $1 trillion dollars per decade.
In another comparison, one of the report’s sponsors remarked that Americans are paying more for family fragmentation than for the war in Iraq. He compared the recently-released cost of five years of war in Iraq--$500 billion--to the $560 billion that American taxpayers have paid for just five years of family breakdown.
The new research shows where the money is going. Increasing amounts of taxpayer money go toward anti-poverty measures, criminal justice and education programs. Taxpayers also pay higher taxes to cover the loss to government coffers due to foregone tax revenues from those whose work productivity has been negatively affected by family breakup.
And of course, money doesn’t even touch the hurt and confusion a child experiences when his parents divorce, or the physical danger he is more likely to face when his parents don’t marry.
Increasing marriage stability would have tremendous results. The report’s author estimates that even a one percent reduction in rates of family fragmentation would save taxpayers $1.12 billion annually.
Read the fact sheet: http://www.americanvalues.org/coff/factsheet.pdf
Download the full report: http://www.americanvalues.org/pdf_form.php
All report information: http://www.americanvalues.org/html/coff_mediaadvisory.htm
Read the CitizenLink article: /content/A000007136.cfm
