David Blankenhorn is the founder and president of the Institute for American Values, a think tank focused on marriage, family, and civil society. He contributed essays to The Weekly Standard on topics including the definition of marriage, thrift, and cultural values. He is the author of 'Fatherless America' and other works exploring the foundations of American social life.
Frightened by tough economic times, formerly spendthrift Americans are beginning to save. But the shift is causing alarm among some economists and commentators. Prudent savers, say these writers, are exemplars of the "paradox of thrift," which holds that the practice of thrift, while seemingly wise…
Does permitting same-sex marriage weaken marriage as a social institution? Or does extending to gay and lesbian couples the right to marry have little or no effect on marriage overall? Scholars and commentators have expended much effort trying in vain to wring proof of causation from the data--all…
HOW SHOULD WE CELEBRATE the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, who was born in Boston on January 17, 1706? Today, we as a society may be unsure of the answer. But as recently as the 1920s, millions of Americans were quite sure. They honored Franklin by publicly extolling the virtue of thrift, a…
EDMUND L. ANDREWS, the "Economic View" columnist for the New York Times, is annoyed. It seems that President Bush won't stick with the plan favored by Andrews and most experts for reducing the marriage penalty in the federal tax code. "The big winners," he complains, "are the Ozzie and Harriets."…
ALMOST SINGLE-HANDED, senator John McCain has revived the concept of personal honor as both the basis of a candidacy for president and the core of a governing philosophy. As his notable success in several winter primaries recedes into the past, McCainism may prove to have been a short-lived…