The Family or Nuclear Family arrangement has lots of problems.
What should we do instead?
Forces/factors
- parents feel greater need to actively raise their children and be actively engaged with them, not just provide food/shelter, etc.
increasingly the typical Nuclear Family is a Two Income Family
Big Co job security is down, putting more Free Agent risk/responsibility on every wage earner
it's hard to do a Start Up while keeping your family fed, saving for college, etc.; it's even harder to start a Start Up on the side while having a Day Job and doing all that.
once you're (upper) Middle Class, sacrificing your life for that of your children doesn't seem to create Pro Gress (unless maybe you have lots more than 2 kids).
lots of people end up in LionKimbro:SexlessMarriage.
- few people have the time and money for a mistress
- marriage was designed when people died early
- people are having kids later
- people spend to use up their income; separating increases expenses (and takes away childcare labor supply)
adults show preference for their own blood children
Some alternatives/patterns (could be used in combination)
Stay single
Have mistress on the side: the "European" solution
are you ready for Tit For Tat? Does Dont Ask Dont Tell work? Just ask Bill Clinton.
Serial monogamy without children
Holly Wood marriage. Maybe it's a conspiracy that they pretend to be hurt when they break up, when they really all know they're just having fun serial monogamy. Are the kids in on the scam? And of course, the childcare game changes when there's lots of money, and neither parent has a structured Day Job.
Let your kids raise themselves. Latchkey Kid, Raised By Wolves. There's some indication it doesn't matter much (Freakonom Ics chapter on factors behind kids education success), but I'm not sure how true that is as you go further out on the curve...
Government managed childcare - didn't go so well in Brave New World
Complex contracts (Pre Nup) to define financial responsibilities over the future of many scenarios.
I think similar issues will come up in the Network Economy as small groups are created and disbanded quickly with ongoing value accrual (Virtual Company).
Co Op-s of mothers (sharing Child Care), with financial support from absent fathers?
Really? Because I feel very few people survive one mother.
Family structures are dealt with a great deal in Aldous Huxley's Island.
Something that seems like a challenge to this pattern is handling "exits" (when one member wants to leave) (Exit Voice And Loyalty). What financial value is there in their piece of a communal area? Who controls who the buyer for this space can be? Robert Heinlein's Friday deals with some of these issues a bit... (similar issues apply to Making ALiving via Tribal Ism, and to Model Intentional Community) And what if it's not about someone wanting to leave, but others wanting him to leave? (Ban Ish)