Critics from professional social scientist,Prof.Pete Alcock&Prof.Miriam David,concentrate mainly on simplicity&on false use of stats in CM's argument. correlation between ilmcy&economic inactivity does not necessary mean causation

Eg unempl is higher among elderly&ilmcy among younger people.So it is false to combine them

 growing trend in divorce doesn't necessary imply unpopularity of marriage,but maybe growing popularity of cohabitation. number of children without parent is rising much slower than number of illegitimate children born

Pete Allock also points out that most of ilmate children are so due to divorce.If their mothers would be penalised,yes divorce rate will fall,but marriage will lose its meaning!

Crime rate may also be higher amongst illegitimate children because they are poorer&need to steal food

Critics also think CM is only looking at ilmcy,which is simplistic,because things are more complex&involve many other things,including eg rising level of overall poverty,exclusion from society&economic recession.All these contributed also towards unempl&crime

 punishment of ilmcy could worsen situation,because decision for single parenthood is not always based on economic reasons&is not voluntary for most of time

Besides policies CM offers have been unsuccessfully tried before in 30-s.&considering forcing of males to marriage,CM does not mention Child Support Agency,that urged men to pay for their children's living etc.That agency failed because people's opinion did not like its radical approach

 decision of whom to exclude from benefits is extremely hard one to make. conservative government is already targeting groups receiving benefits more precisely, critics say this is done just to reduce number of people in poverty

Critics,specially columnist Melanie Philips& Director of National Council of One-Parent families,Sue Slipman,consider comparison with Victorian era to be irrelevant,because state of technology,economic prospects&many other things were different

They are also suspicious about comparison between UK&USA,because CM has not done enough research. stats showing growing difference between upper&lower classes are made up by CM based only indirect evidence from US. difference in UK might not be that big

CM is with extreme right wing attitude in this case&uses his subjective view,whereas social trends should be looked at more objective side

Policies CM offers won't work in short run,because it takes time to change people's attitudes.During that time mothers unmarried at present will have to live in poverty&their children would suffer most.Besides it can be argued that present situation is temporary,because women have become feminists&men are left bit behind in their fight for their rights.As soon as men will find their correct place in marriage through cooperation, tension releases& social attitude for marriage will improve by itself

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{info author|Keith Siilats}, {DATE|02/03/96}, Subject: {info subject|Economics}, Words: {info numwords|1442}

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