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Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: Millennials are avoiding divorce. But their American Dream has changed.
We're tempted to cheer that divorce rates have (so far) decreased for millennials who married in the 2010s, according to new research from the Institute for Family Studies. But behind that trend lies a deeper story — one that raises some questions about the future of the American Dream. Yes, divorce rates are lower than in previous generations, but fewer people are getting married in the first place, a trend that's persisted for years as more people opt out of marital unions — not surprising, given many of these young adults themselves grew up with divorced parents. But it's not just coupling trends that are shifting. So are the other traditional markers of adulthood. Fewer young adults own their own home today than ever before, even though three-quarters of millennials surveyed by still view buying a home as part of the American Dream. Lower marriage rates and lower homeownership among younger adults seems to indicate the increasing elusiveness of what we have long considered the American Dream of owning your own place and building a family. So what's going on? Is this a generational shift in values — or the predictable result of a system that's become too expensive and too precarious for anyone to gain a foothold? If millennials learned anything from the Great Recession, it's that owning a home can be risky, especially if you take on more than you can comfortably afford. Too many of their baby boomer and Gen X parents did that, and many lost homes to foreclosure. Student loan debt is also a big factor. Yes, millennials are the most educated group of buyers in the marketplace, but that pedigree didn't come cheap. Average student loan debt per borrower is nearly $39,000. Unsurprisingly, fewer young people are opting to go to college at all these days, explaining why universities the nation over now are scrambling to scrounge up enough students. So is the American Dream disintegrating? Or is it changing shape? We think the answer is a bit of both. Affordability plays no small role in explaining why fewer young people buy a home or choose to go into debt for a degree. Also, millennials with their higher levels of educational attainment, want something to show for their hard work — which has led more to pursue careers before the stroller and the white picket fence. COVID also shifted priorities and how they define 'success,' with many opting for paths that yield independence and flexibility over status. Marriage may come back into vogue — a recent New York Times study suggested Gen Z is more pro-marriage than previous generations with most therein expecting to marry. If Gen Z does bring marriage back into fashion, it won't be a return to tradition so much as a reinvention of it — one that values stability, yes, but also flexibility and purpose. That's the American Dream now.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Yahoo
Look out for these cheating apps on your partner's phone
Not to be the bearers of bad news, but unfortunately, suspicions that your partner is cheating can't always be chalked up to simple paranoia or anxiety. According to a survey done by the Survey Center on American Life in 2023, 46% of women and 34% of men reported that they've been cheated on by their partner or spouse. Another Institute for Family Studies found that 11% of married people under 40 are still active on dating apps. And let's just say smartphones don't exactly make cheating harder. Of course, not every hunch is reality, and having faith in your partner is a super healthy thing to hold on to. If the vibes do seem off, though, finding any of these cheating apps on your significant other's phone can be a huge red flag — or at the very least, the start of a very serious conversation. PeopleWin profiles the most concerning apps. From highway directions to counting steps to grabbing takeout, there are few things in life that apps don't make easier. While legit dating apps — you know, the kind designed for single people or those in consensually open relationships — make finding a romantic match easier, too, the internet infidelity rabbit hole goes a whole lot deeper. In 2024, some of the most popular dating apps include eHarmony, Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, Happn, and Coffee Meets Bagel. Any of these showing up on your committed partner's phone should give you pause, but even more concerning are straight-up, purpose-made cheating apps. These sketchy apps are more specifically designed for prowling partners to find illicit affairs, so seeing any one of them installed on your boo's phone should set off alarm bells. Perhaps the biggest name in cheating apps with one of the biggest user bases, Ashley Madison boasts 75 million member accounts and ushers in 15,000 new users daily. Ashley's main goal is to facilitate extramarital sex, and it says so right on the tin. The app allows users to digitally hide their faces in photos, and it lets women browse for free while men have to pay, so you know what's going on here. Seeking is a tricky one. It's kind of like a cheating app with plausible deniability. Seeking originally started as SeekingArrangement in 2006, where that 'arrangement' was understood to be between a young, attractive girlfriend or boyfriend and a wealthy benefactor — a.k.a., a 'sugar baby' setup. Seeking now has sleeker branding that focuses on 'hypergamy,' which is essentially the practice of dating upward, which can very much translate to hooking up with a sugar daddy or sugar mama. Features like income verification and advertising over one million millionaires on the platform are dead giveaways for what's going down. While these services don't have dedicated cheating apps for Android or iOS, they do facilitate infidelity the old-fashioned way: in a browser window. If any of these websites come up in your other half's browser or search history, you might have a little talking to do. Victoria Milan. Why are two of these sketchy dating services just fancy-sounding women's names? Anyway, this site is the number one browser-based service for 'married and attached dating,' with anonymity features, high-security standards, over 20,000 daily matches, and a ratio of 53% women to 47% men, making it a little more gender-balanced than its competitors. Adult Friend Finder. It may position itself as a regular dating site, but we all know what's up with Adult Friend Finder. A) We don't call our SOs our 'adult friends,' and B) those membership prices are just a little too scandalous. As Cleveland Scene puts it, 'An affair is waiting for you there. Look at AFF as a sexual affair jungle with daters waiting for prey.' While finding any kind of dating app on your partner's phone can definitely be sus, dating-focused apps such as Hinge, Badoo, Clover, and Bumble do actually have options for matching with platonic friends and even business partners. These racy options, on the other hand, aren't necessarily cheating apps, but they're dating apps that have a reputation for mostly facilitating casual hookups. Very few people are looking for 'friends' on these apps, unless those friends happen to have benefits: Grindr positions itself as the number one free dating app for the LGBTQ+ community, but it most definitely has a rep as a hookup app. Straight from the horse's mouth, Grindr 'is an indispensable tool for LGBTQ travelers,' which certainly seems to emphasize a quick fling more so than a committed relationship. Feeld's pitch is a 'dating app for the curious,' focusing on open-minded, nontraditional romantic encounters. Nothing wrong with that on its own, but Feeld's appeal to 'anyone looking for an exciting, new type of dating experience' may appeal to unfaithful lovers, too. Sometimes, online infidelity happens without any sort of cheating app at all. While these secret texting apps don't have any of the romantic sheen of dating or hookup apps and often have a legit place in sectors that call for more security, they certainly can be and certainly are used by cheaters to carry on clandestine conversations. Some of the most common secret texting apps include: Signal: A messaging app with a focus on encryption that keeps texts, voice messages, videos, and pics private, so they're only accessible to the senders and recipients — even Signal's own team can't access them. Not a sure sign of cheating, but you can definitely see the allure here. Perhaps a little more obscure and a lot more sneaky, some cheaters use apps that aren't explicitly focused on chatting, but that do offer direct message features — such as mobile games — to obfuscate their online convos. By no means does this mean that the games and apps on your partner's phone are hidden cheating app icons, but if you already have reason to investigate, be aware that friendly-looking game-like apps such as Hago, Plato, RecRoom, and AmongChat are just some options with low-key chat features. Much more devious, Calculator Pro+ can fairly be considered a hidden cheating app icon — it's a functioning calculator with a calculator-themed icon that hides a fully featured secret texting app. You know your partner better than anyone, so you'll know when any of these cheating apps — or just slightly eyebrow-raising apps — call for further action, whether it's a quick 'hey, what's the deal with that app?' or a difficult, face-to-face sit down. At the end of the day, trust is the cornerstone of any strong relationship — but if something doesn't sit right, it's okay to look into it. While apps can sometimes raise red flags, behavior matters even more. If you're noticing other warning signs and feel the need to dig a little deeper, a quick people search might give you the clarity you need to make informed decisions about your relationship. This story was produced by PeopleWin and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Biblical formula for choosing spouse offers lessons that modern dating overlooks
Maybe this is the most important question we will receive from our children and grandchildren: "How do I know that he (or she) is the one?" The Bible – our great guidebook – has the answer. In Genesis 24, Abraham sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for his son Isaac. The Secrets Of A Meaningful And Lifelong Grandparent-grandchild Bond His only instruction? Go to Haran, the place where Abraham once "made souls." (See the video at the top of this article.) It was a culture open to God. That's trait No. 1. Look for a spouse in a good place. Read On The Fox News App Eliezer arrives and sees Rebecca. She's "very fair to look upon" — that's trait No. 2. Then he watches her draw water not just for him, but for all his camels — an exhausting and generous act. That's trait No. 3: generosity. Why God And The Bible Were Right About Your Work Schedule All Along On the basis of these three — and only three — characteristics, Eliezer decides: She's the one. Rebecca, in turn, is told only two things about Isaac. He's wealthy, which means he can provide. And he loves God, which means he has a strong set of values. She agrees to marry him. Then the Torah gives us an instructive sequence: "Isaac married her. She became his wife. And he loved her." As Isaac and Rebecca had the best marriage in the Bible, their formula for marital happiness is worthy of our reflection. Identify a few essential traits. Get married. Become a spouse through continual acts of giving. Then love will follow and continually grow. The Hebrew language supports this. The root of ahava — love — is hav, meaning "to give." Those of us who have enjoyed or even just observed long, happy and loving relationships know why: We don't give to those we love; we love those to whom we give. We don't "fall in love." We cultivate it. Modern culture says the opposite. Waiting until age 30 to marry and have children, for example, increases infertility risks, both for women and men, to varying extents. Casual dating often leads to casual sex, which is so unsatisfying that we are now in what sociologists call a "sexual recession," in which young men prefer video games (particularly new releases) to sex. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Lifestyle Newsletter Repeated rejection causes long-term emotional wear that the body recognizes as physical pain. In the model cited earlier, people "test" compatibility for years. A 2016 Barna study found that 84% of couples who live together before marriage do so to check for compatibility. And yet, according to the Institute for Family Studies, the No. 1 reason for divorce? "Basic incompatibility." When it comes to advising our children and grandchildren about a happy marriage, the Bible offers the now-proven formula. Throw out the 100-item checklists. For more Lifestyle articles, visit It doesn't matter if the young woman prefers warm-weather vacations over cold-weather vacations. It doesn't matter if the young man's friends are funny. If the couple has a foundation for love, which can be found in two or three core characteristics, they might think about getting those church bells ready to ring — as they are set for a wonderful marriage. Mark Gerson's new book is "God Was Right: How Modern Social Science Proves the Torah Is True," published by BenBella Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster (June 2025). This article is part of a series featured exclusively by Fox News article source: Biblical formula for choosing spouse offers lessons that modern dating overlooks
Business Insider
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
JD Vance wants women to have more babies. Conservative pro-natalists say cheaper housing is key.
Proponents of boosting the declining US birth rate are targeting Americans' biggest expense: housing. They say what parents and would-be parents need are cheaper homes that would give their families the room and financial security to grow. A recent report by the Institute for Family Studies, a conservative think tank that pushes for policies to increase the birth rate, concluded that housing costs were the single biggest factor stopping Americans from having as many kids as they want. "Housing cost concerns are more influential on young adults' plans than childcare costs, work schedules, job stability, student debt, healthcare access, paid leave, desire for leisure time, personal health, or other care obligations," the report found. In IFS' survey of more than 8,000 Americans 18-54 years old, a quarter of respondents listed housing costs as a concern, while 30% cited the cost of childcare, and 26% said they wanted more leisure time. But housing costs had the largest effect of those three factors on family size. "Housing costs were unique in having a very large effect and being extremely common, so they explain the largest total amount of foreshortening of intentions," Lyman Stone, the director of IFS' Pronatalism Initiative and a co-author of the report, told Business Insider. The group has an ally in Vice President JD Vance, who's among the most prominent faces of the conservative push for more American babies. "Our people aren't having enough children to replace themselves. That should bother us," Vance said in 2019. In his first speech as vice president, he told March for Life gatherers, "I want more babies in the United States of America." Are housing costs affecting your family planning decisions? Reach out to this reporter at erelman@ Vance has been critical of subsidizing childcare and expanding parental leave; he favors policies designed to help parents who don't work outside the home. The vice president has also called for building new housing on federal land that would be sold or leased to private developers, and supports cutting red tape, including land-use regulations, that limit housing construction. He and his conservative allies could find common ground on housing with Democrats, who also believe the US needs to build many more homes to bring costs down. A White House spokesperson didn't respond to BI's request for comment. When it comes to housing, conservative pro-natalists have slightly different aims than the typical YIMBY agenda, which focuses on building more dense housing in high-demand urban and inner-ring suburban areas, often around transit hubs. Groups like IFS want to prioritize building more single-family homes, which Americans tend to prefer over multifamily housing. An overwhelming majority of IFS survey respondents — 79% — said they preferred to live in a detached, single-family home, while just 59% live in that kind of home. "There's that desire to give your kids a backyard and have space to spread out when it comes to having and raising a family," Brad Wilcox, a sociologist at the University of Virginia and the co-founder of IFS, told BI. Wilcox said IFS has had conversations with the Trump administration's Domestic Policy Council, and pointed to the administration's efforts to sell federal land for housing construction as a promising path forward. The group also wants to see a slew of policy changes at the local, state, and federal levels to juice housing construction, including relaxing land-use regulations and legalizing more construction in undeveloped areas. "For a lot of ordinary people, the most preferred and fruitful path to pursue here is to try to figure out ways to make affordable single-family housing more accessible to working middle-class Americans," Wilcox said. Replicating the baby boom The US birth rate has been largely on the decline since the financial crisis of 2008. While many factors influence the choice to have kids, government policy is well-positioned to address the economic drivers. There's evidence that rising housing costs shrink family size. A 10% increase in home prices led to a 1% decrease in births among non-homeowners, economists Lisa Dettling and Melissa Schettini Kearney found in a 2012 paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research. The researchers also found evidence from the distant past that easier access to homeownership can help boost birth rates. The advent of the modern, low-down-payment mortgage in the 1930s facilitated a sharp uptick in the US birth rate that helped create the baby boom, according to their February 2025 NBER working paper. The loans, backed by the Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration, made it easier for some younger Americans to buy a home by allowing very low payments up front and 30 years to pay off the loans. (Black Americans were effectively excluded from these programs for years.) The researchers found that the two mortgage insurance programs helped lower the age people got married and had their first baby, and led to 3 million additional births between 1935 and 1957, accounting for about 10% of the spike in births associated with the baby boom. "Maybe how easy it is to have kids is less about can they take three months off work versus 'do I have a bedroom to put this kid in for the next 18 years?'" Schettini Kearney, an economist at the University of Maryland, recently told BI.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Republicans Want to Punish Single Parents
Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee may make it harder for single parents to access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. A new provision in Republicans' 97-page bill, rolled out Monday evening, allows for exceptions to the program's work requirements for some able-bodied adults, including certain married parents, without making the same considerations for single parents. The general work requirements for SNAP benefits include registering for work, participating in SNAP Employment and Training, or E&T, taking a suitable job if offered, and not voluntarily quitting or reducing work hours below 30 a week without a good reason, according to the USDA Food and Nutritional Service. Republicans' new bill includes a work-requirement exception for an individual who is 'responsible for a dependent child 7 years of age or older and is married to, and resides with, an individual who is in compliance' with the work requirements, but contains no equivalent exception for single parents. In 2022, children in single-parent families made up a 53 percent majority of SNAP recipients, according to a report from the Institute for Family Studies. A whopping 49 percent of those children are living with their mothers, 4 percent reside with their fathers, and 6 percent reside with relatives or foster parents. On top of that, E&T requirements have created something of a catch-22 within the SNAP benefits program. Congress's 2018 farm bill, which permitted paid training to be a component in E&T, inadvertently resulted in significant reduction or total loss of food assistance for beneficiaries because the earnings they made ended up counting against their eligibility. The new legislation would tighten eligibility requirements for SNAP and place a greater financial burden on states instead of the federal government, which is looking to shed millions of dollars in spending as part of the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts. Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee have been directed to find $230 billion in potential cuts.
