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This forum address entitled Making Strong Families a National Priority

was given on November 19th of 2024 by Melissa S. Carney,

then Neil Moskowitz Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland.

I am so honored to be here with you all today, and it is quite humbling to have the opportunity

to address this audience. As someone who studies domestic poverty, income inequality, and

economic mobility, I've long been intrigued by the relative success of Utah. As many as you might know, when it comes to

rates of poverty, income inequality, and economic mobility, Utah boasts some of the best outcomes

in the nation. I also feel a bit sheepish standing here today because it is not lost on me that

the big takeaway from my research that I'm

here to share will likely strike many in the Latter-day Saints community as rather obvious.

The big takeaway I'm here to announce is that based on the research that I have done as an economist

for the past 25 years, I can say with the backing of mounds of evidence that family

is critically important. Okay, so some of you might be thinking, really, that's what this economist

came to tell us. We know that. And I can hear my Italian grandma with her eighth grade level of

education teasing me from heaven,

Melissa, that's what you went to all that school and did all that studying to learn? I could have

told you that. However, though this insight will likely not surprise many in this audience,

it is a bit controversial in other crowds. The topic of family and family structure and what has happened to the American family over recent decades is often declared as out of bounds in policy conversations.

Even when it is not declared out of bounds, it is not given priority.

That is a big mistake,

...