ThinkTankWeekly

Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years

Heritage | 2026-02-22 | society

Topics: AI, China, Climate, Europe, Middle East, Trade, United States

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English Summary

The report argues that America’s long-term decline in marriage and fertility is a civilizational threat and that restoring stable married-parent families is essential to national renewal. It cites historical trends and social-science findings linking two-parent married households with better child outcomes, lower poverty and crime, and stronger economic and civic performance, while blaming welfare marriage penalties, cultural shifts, and institutional incentives for family breakdown. Strategically, it recommends a whole-of-government pro-family agenda: remove welfare and tax marriage penalties, strengthen work requirements, reduce regulatory and housing barriers, expand religion- and family-supportive policies, and create new marriage-centered incentives (FAM/HCE credits and NEST accounts). The implication is a shift from neutral or symptom-management policy toward explicit state preference for marriage and child-rearing within intact families as a national policy objective.

中文摘要

該報告主張,美國長期的婚姻率與生育率下滑已構成文明層次的威脅,而重建穩定的已婚雙親家庭是國家復興的關鍵。報告援引歷史趨勢與社會科學研究,指出相較其他家庭型態,已婚雙親家庭與更佳的兒童發展結果、更低的貧窮與犯罪率,以及更強的經濟與公民表現相關;同時將家庭解組歸因於福利制度中的婚姻懲罰、文化變遷與制度性誘因。策略上,報告建議推動「全政府」親家庭議程:取消福利與稅制中的婚姻懲罰、強化工作要求、降低監管與住房障礙、擴大對宗教與家庭友善政策支持,並建立以婚姻為核心的新誘因(如 FAM/HCE 抵免與 NEST 帳戶)。其政策意涵在於,將現行中立或偏向症狀管理的政策取向,轉向由國家明確偏好在完整家庭中結婚與育兒,並將其作為國家政策目標。

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