The Systematic Disadvantaging of Single People and How It is Denied

What’s wrong with claims that married people are doing better and singles are not treated unfairly?

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I just had the great good fortune of participating in an hour-long show that will air on many NPR stations, probably in July. The show is , moderated by John Donvan, and “Married or single?” was the topic.

As I , I pointed to the whole system of inequality that advantages married people and disadvantages single people. The next day, on X (Twitter), my debate opponent, Jonathan Rothwell, posted this:

I agree that single people were treated unfairly at some points in recent history, but I doubt very much that is the case today, in our highly secular culture which now greatly respects (maybe too much!) idiosyncratic individual lifestyle choices.

I was going to wait until the debate aired in July to discuss it, but that tweet stunned me. It shouldn’t have — of course, I know that plenty of people deny that exists, and when it is pointed out to them, they just . But for an expert on marriage, who seems to be the lead person at Gallup heralding their findings, to be so uninformed on this issue — wow! (I’m not criticizing…