It's the economy stupid

      Two columns in the NYT caught my eye this morning.  Paul Krugman's argues and provides statistics which show life expectancy in states which voted for tRump is diverging from states which voted for Hillary Clinton.   Inhabitants of the latter can expect to live up to 4 more years than red state citizens.   He opines that Medicaid expansion and better health care in general explains the difference.
     Russ Douthat, a self proclaimed "weird catholic columnist" tackles the decline of marriage and child raising in America and slams explanations from the left and right and finally comes to the conclusion that it really is the fault of those who would change the traditional, patriarchal foundation of American marriage.
     Both men point to Europe as evidence for their assertions.   However, both of these upper middle class products of the meritocracy seem to be missing an essential point.   The majority of those in their child bearing years do not have the money to raise children in the idealized 1950's model.  Child care is probably the number one cause of the one or two child family or increasingly the no child model.   The idealized single breadwinner family seems to me to be obsolete for much of the country.  it now takes two incomes in many cases to afford the child care Krugman and Douthat take for granted.   The American dream is receding for blue and red states alike and unless the economic realities are addressed, children will continue to be a scarce commodity.