This is a must-read from my friend John Burns. I just bought his book Big Shifts Ahead and put it on my Kindle. I have known John a long time and I have no reason to doubt his facts – they square with other things I have read. He is just looking at it from the housing industry standpoint, but there is a huge differential in total welfare benefits available to those who are single rather than married. That might help us understand why there has been an explosion in the number of single women: It makes no financial sense to get married, and we have created perverse incentives against marriage in this country. A short read but eye-opening.