Clack Warren's Essay The Cohabitation Epidemic
After reading the essay “The Cohabitation Epidemic” I do not believe the author (Neal Clack Warren) made a good case for his conclusion stating that we should be alarmed over the recent epidemic of cohabiting couples. When I first read the essay I wasn’t actually too sure that was the conclusion. So much time was spent arguing over the position that cohabiting with a partner is not a good form of a trail marriage, that it was lost in the mix to me. After rereading and breaking it down I tried to take a closer look and see if the premises lead to the conclusion.
At the beginning of the essay Neil explains the social changes that have occurred in the last few decades showing the stark rise of “unmarried –partner households.” He claims that …show more content…
Neil does bring in some premises that are relevant to that. Neil brings up some states showing that children born to cohabiting parents experience separation of their parents before the age of “16” at “75%” compared to those married at around “one third” . If it was demonstrated that a separation of parents lead to a negative impacts in a child’s life and behavior then the premise might stand. Unfortunately since so few cohabiting couples decide to have children that the net parent separation rate bellow 16% is probably higher for married couples. Neil states that women are more likely to face “physical and sexual abuse” when living in cohabitation compared to a marriage. Neil fails to bring any stats or proof to that claim or anything thing showing that cohabitation is the cause and not just in correlation. An argument is made that relationships will not be as good as married relationships because the partners will not be “genuine and authentic” due to the thinking that “their partner may bolt at the first sign of trouble.” One could rebut that be not having this security would make both partners put more effort into maintaining the relationship due to the fact that they know their partner can leave much more easily. I find it hard to believe that married people are “emotionally, physically, financially, and vocationally” better off because the apparent studies are not listed and we are not informed in what way those statistics were
At the beginning of the essay Neil explains the social changes that have occurred in the last few decades showing the stark rise of “unmarried –partner households.” He claims that …show more content…
Neil does bring in some premises that are relevant to that. Neil brings up some states showing that children born to cohabiting parents experience separation of their parents before the age of “16” at “75%” compared to those married at around “one third” . If it was demonstrated that a separation of parents lead to a negative impacts in a child’s life and behavior then the premise might stand. Unfortunately since so few cohabiting couples decide to have children that the net parent separation rate bellow 16% is probably higher for married couples. Neil states that women are more likely to face “physical and sexual abuse” when living in cohabitation compared to a marriage. Neil fails to bring any stats or proof to that claim or anything thing showing that cohabitation is the cause and not just in correlation. An argument is made that relationships will not be as good as married relationships because the partners will not be “genuine and authentic” due to the thinking that “their partner may bolt at the first sign of trouble.” One could rebut that be not having this security would make both partners put more effort into maintaining the relationship due to the fact that they know their partner can leave much more easily. I find it hard to believe that married people are “emotionally, physically, financially, and vocationally” better off because the apparent studies are not listed and we are not informed in what way those statistics were