Op-Eds do not reflect the editorial opinion of The Daily Free Press. They are solely the opinion of the authors.
Philip Wohltorf (Pardee ’27) is a second-year Boston University student studying International Relations and Business Administration.
Talk to any student graduating with debt, facing $2,000 a month rent and wondering if marriage or children are even realistic by 30 — and you’ll hear the quiet crisis behind today’s headlines.
The nuclear family is under siege — cultural upheaval, economic stress and the erosion of traditional values have all contributed to its decline.
Between 1960 and 1980, the divorce rate in the United States more than doubled — from 2.2 to 5.2 per 1,000 people. That’s a staggering 136% increase in just two decades. Even though the divorce rate has decreased since its peak, the American family has not recovered — marriage is rarer, birth rates remain low and the cultural infrastructure that once supported stable families has continued to erode.
In an older America, a strong network of social institutions — family, church, community, school, state and even employers — would have stood together to preserve the integrity of the family unit. But by the 1980s, and even more so today, the nuclear family no longer functions as it once did, and the institutions meant to support it have crumbled.
But family breakdown does not happen in a vacuum. It’s often driven by deeper structural failures — economic pressure, cultural decay and policy choices that devalue marriage and parenthood.
When families weaken, the ripple effects are unmistakable: rising crime, declining educational outcomes and a loss of shared purpose.
When this vital institution collapses, the damage radiates across society — fueling despair, loneliness, social dislocation and a sense of aimlessness. In my eyes, the primary challenge Americans face in the 21st century is not inflation, foreign policy or political division — it is the crisis of family formation.
Over the past 60 years, the very foundation of the American family has come under sustained assault. What was once the standard — married parents raising children under one roof — is now a shrinking share of American households.
While there’s been a slight uptick in marriage rates in recent years, it’s not significant enough to suggest any meaningful or lasting reversal. Demographers now predict that one in three young adults will never marry, and one in four will never have children.
This isn’t a matter of personal preference — it’s a reflection of a society where forming a family has become an increasingly difficult and unsupported choice.
American women today are expected to have only 1.73 children on average — a sharp decline from the 3.77 children per woman during the Baby Boom. This collapse in birthrates is not merely a demographic trend — it is a civilizational warning.
A nation that forgets how to nurture life inevitably forgets how to build for the future.
Traditions fade, cultures wither, and the way of life slips into memory with no one to carry it forward. But where there are children, there is hope. Marriage and family anchor people to something greater than themselves — a duty to protect, preserve, and pass on the nation they call home.
The good news is that America is not suffering from a lack of desire for children. Surveys show that women born between 1995 and 1999 intended to have 2.1 children on average — almost the same as women born in the late 1960s.
In other words, the aspiration hasn’t changed — but achieving it has become harder than ever. Why? Because our economy and institutions no longer work for working and middle-class Americans.
Young couples are delaying or abandoning marriage and parenthood not out of choice, but because housing, healthcare, childcare and education have become unaffordable luxuries.
This is where the conservative movement must lead.
The new conservative vision must shift its focus from Wall Street to Main Street — just like U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently announced, and just like the current administration is attempting: to serve the people, not the donors.
It must prioritize rebuilding the foundations of family formation by making middle-class life affordable and attainable once again. Every hard-working American should have the opportunity to build a large, loving family — if they so choose — without being punished by the economy or ignored by their government.
To get there, we must take aim at the root causes. The real issue lies not in market failure, but in government failure.
It is policy — not productivity — that’s driving prices out of reach for young families.
Regulatory burdens on housing, education and healthcare have made essential goods artificially scarce.
Price caps and rent control — as seen in places like Germany, France and Austria — merely treat the symptoms while worsening the disease. Instead, the U.S. government must focus on expanding supply through smart deregulation and pro-family reform.
Take the National Environmental Policy Act, for instance — the grandfather of abundance-strangling regulations — whose delays on housing developments, infrastructure projects and energy expansion have driven up costs and stalled growth for working families. What began as a well-intentioned safeguard has morphed into a bureaucratic weapon against progress.
If we want families to thrive, we need to reform or repeal outdated rules, cut through the red tape and unblock the arteries of American growth so they can access affordable homes, reliable hospitals and quality schools.
Rebuilding the American family is the most urgent and meaningful cause of our time. Without families, there is no future.
Every policy debate — from housing to healthcare to education — must begin with one question: does this make it easier to raise a family in America?
Conservatives must seize this moment to offer a bold, hopeful and pro-family agenda — one that empowers marriage, celebrates children, and restores the civic fabric of our great nation.
This is not just a social issue — it’s the foundation of economic renewal, national strength, and generational continuity. A culture of family is a culture of hope. If we want to save America, we must first save the American family.
This isn’t about nostalgia — it’s about survival.