The Inequality That Matters

I've written more than once that I don't care about inequality. I care a lot about the absolute condition of the poor...but I don't care whether Bill Gates is living in a house that cost 19 squintillion dollars. I care whether everyone else in the country has a warm, dry abode with indoor plumbing and all the other mod cons.

That view changed while I was researching an article on late marriage. Marriage has basically followed the same path as income over the last 50 years. The college-educated have it better than ever -- they are enjoying what Harvard researcher Kathryn Edin calls "superrelationships," characterized by extremely high levels of rapport, cooperation and satisfaction. The bottom two thirds, on the other hand, are in unstable relationships that tend to break apart under stress. They typically have at least one child before they marry, experts told me, and when they do marry, it's not to the father of their child. This is bad for the people in these relationships, and for the children they produce.