How much does divorce cost us as a society?
According to a new study it's at least $112 billion/year
“Even a small improvement in the health of marriage in America would result in enormous savings to taxpayers,” he
continued. “For example, a 1 percent reduction in rates of family fragmentation would save taxpayers $1.1 billion.”
“These costs are due to increased taxpayer expenditures for anti-poverty, criminal justice and education programs, and
through lower levels of taxes paid by individuals whose adult productivity has been negatively affected by increased
childhood poverty caused by family fragmentation,” said principal investigator Ben Scafidi, Ph.D., economics
professor at Georgia College & State University.
UPDATE. David Freddoso looks more deeply into the study and finds that the cost of divorce and illegitimacy are greater that the annual cost of the Iraq war.
family fragmentation is the second leading case of poverty in the United States, after lack of full-time work
the very cautious assumptions behind the study ensure that the final result underestimates the cost to taxpayers.
--Marital stability does not just avert great public expense, as Scafidi shows, but it also defends communities from much broader economic ills — to say nothing of its social, moral, or religious significance.