| September 2,
2000 By Diane Urbani
Deseret
News staff writer
Related
links:
Alliance for Marriage
Details of the poll
With the November election a little
more than two months away, the Alliance for
Marriage wants to let candidates know what
Americans believe is important.
It's a straightforward
message: Most of us value strong families. And to
keep households intact, they could use some help
from government.
An Alliance for Marriage
poll of 1,030 adults across the United States
found that 64 percent consider strengthening
families to be a higher priority than creating
jobs. And 77 percent of the people surveyed worry
more about the environment in their homes than
about the global environment.
"We wanted to send up a
signal flare for our message," said Matt
Daniels, director of the Alliance, based in
Washington, D.C. "The whole campaign cycle
will begin in earnest after Labor Day, and the
candidates need to hear this." The
just-released poll results show, Daniels said,
that nothing else is more important to Americans
than keeping families strong.
Policymakers have the power
to ease the stresses families face, he added.
They can provide tax incentives to businesses
offering flexible work schedules, on-site child
care or home-based jobs. Some 87 percent of the
poll's respondents said they want businesses to
do more. Married couples should also receive tax
breaks, according to 76 percent of the people
surveyed.
Dr. Wilfred Higashi, a
Holladay family therapist and former director of
the Utah Division of Mental Health, said that
even amid Utah's current economic vigor, many
families are struggling.
"It's harder and harder
to make a decent living. So what's happening is
that fewer women are staying home to be
mothers," Higashi said. Business and
government leaders could help parents, he added,
by "giving mothers more time off after
giving birth and having child-care centers in the
working environment."
Couples considering divorce
should be required to obtain counseling,
according to 78 percent of Alliance poll
respondents. Higashi agrees. "People are too
quick to get divorces.
That's not the answer." Many a stressed-out
spouse believes he or she can find happiness with
a different partner. But "happiness is an
inside job."
Only 40 percent of poll
respondents said that welfare policies need to
change to help low-income families. But Utah
Issues welfare policy analyst Gina Cornia said
that numerous Utah families need a financial
break.
"Especially along the
Wasatch Front, housing is a big barrier. Rents
have gone up 6 percent every year since 1994, and
wages have not kept pace," Cornia said.
Elected officials could help by allocating the
money to expand employment services, subsidized
child care and public transportation.
"If you work a swing or
graveyard shift, transportation is another huge
barrier," because buses don't run at night.
Two-parent families need a
hand as much as single parents do, Cornia added.
The welfare system is set up to provide more help
to single parents, she said, though "we have
a lot of low-income, two-parent families who
struggle. If both parents are making minimum
wage, that's not even $12 an hour."
The couple might make just
enough money to be ineligible for public
assistance, while they still face ever-increasing
rents, child-care costs and grocery bills.
"There has been a significant increase in
food-bank usage" in Utah, Cornia said.
"These people really work hard. It's so
discouraging to them that they can't pay their
bills."
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