STEVEN HORWITZ IHS: MORALITY, CAPITALISM, AND FREEDOM SUMMER 2010 Capitalism and the Family

Opening Thoughts A history of the evolution of the family in which capitalism is the source of desirable changes in the direction of more freedom  Left: family freedom good, but capitalism not  Right: capitalism good, but family freedom not  Why not celebrate both? Two opening claims:  No such thing as the “traditional family”  The multiple meanings of “normal family”  Function and form

The Modern and Pre-Modern Family The modern family  Marital choice by consent and emotional/romantic attraction  The family as a private, insulated space  Children treated sentimentally and uniquely valued  Legal equality and more economic equality between genders The pre-industrial family  Family as the unit of production not consumption  The household is the firm  Family is also a political unit

Why was this “pre-modern?” Arranged marriages – and even where it was consent, it was not about love  “Yoke mates rather than soul mates”  Production complementarities not consumption ones Women were effectively chattel Children were economic assets  Large family size, high infant mortality rates Family was porous to the public and not private  Church, state, and community involved in marriage, adoption, and sexuality  No divorce

Capitalism creates the modern family So what changed the pre-modern family? Capitalism:  Industrialization and the advent of wage labor  Higher incomes due to economic growth Separation of market and household production Higher wages mean child labor eventually disappears  Children go from directly producing assets to investments  This means they become expensive  Childhood becomes the “sheltered childhood” we now know  Family size begins to shrink even as infant mortality drops

Changes in marriage With families having more wealth:  The state, the community, the church and even parents are pushed back  Marriage is a matter of choice and affection not economics  Consumption complementarities matter more than production  We get the “nuclear family” we now know The “separate spheres” of the Victorian Era By early 20 th century, women begin to enter labor force in clerical/service jobs  Higher incomes mean more education for boys AND girls We more or less now have the modern family

The 20 th century Key event: the steady increase in women’s labor force participation rates  Myth: the 60s “caused” married women to start working  If anything, women working caused the women’s movement!  The Pill is more important  Since the 60s: rise of working moms with very young kids What led to more women working?  Higher wages that drew them out from the home  a consequence of more education that raised their human capital  and higher demand for labor resulting from economic growth that raised the value of that human capital

Women, Market Work, and the Family Changes in household production:  Technological advances reduces time necessary  Economic growth provides market substitutes for time Impact on the family  Women are freer to create and leave marriages thanks to greater wealth and reduction in specialization by gender  Fewer kids and more wealth means child care is less time consuming and more easily purchased on the market  Family moves from an economic to psychological/emotional one  Children become increasingly “precious”

Some thoughts on divorce One effect of capitalism on the family is higher divorce rates  Preferences have changed: the bar for being happy, especially for women, is much higher. More easily disappointed.  Constraints have changed: unhappy people, particularly women, can now leave in ways they couldn’t before Costs and benefits of divorce  This is clearly a win for women, although no-fault has issues  Divorce is not good for kids, but…  Evidence is clear that a cooperative divorce is better than a tension-filled marriage  Finally: even if divorce hurts kids, adults matter too

Capitalism and Same-Sex Marriage Capitalism created gay and lesbian identity  Wage labor eliminated the economic need for a family  Capitalism produced anonymous urban centers Why same-sex marriage now?  Classical liberalism’s tolerance for “anything that’s peaceful”  Wealth and technology separated sex, marriage, and reproduction for heterosexuals  Capitalism transformed marriage from being economic and reproductive to being based on emotion and affection Add it all up, and this seems like the logical next step Function, form, and family freedom  It’s evolution not revolution

Marriage, Family, and the State Some questions to ponder:  Should the state have a role in marriage at all?  If the state does have a role, is there a libertarian case for legalizing same-sex marriages?  If so, where would you find the constitutional argument?  How might libertarians deal with the tricky question of children’s rights? Is the issue better thought of in terms of “parental rights?”  Anyone know the constitutional law here? Final thought on capitalism, family, and instrumental rationality.