Youth And Marriage

Anna makes some extremely good points about marriage:

I remember one girl in my highschool who came from a very traditional family. She got married at the beginning of her senior year, and had a baby by the end of it. She was seen by everyone as a "lost case", as someone who has caused irreparable damage to her future. The terrible irony of it was that we were surrounded by young girls who hopped from one meaningless dating relationship to the next, who became promiscuos, caught STDs, had abortions, and became emotionally crippled for the rest of their lives. But somehow, that wasn't viewed in the light of its true horror - while early marriage and motherhood were considered an obvious tragedy.

I highly recommend reading her whole post.

Less obvious, perhaps, is the disattentuating effect delaying marriage has on men.
Despite massive attempts to socialize us otherwise, motivation comes from commitment within the context of roles well known to us from ancient times. With no impetus to commit, with, indeed encouragement to avoid such commitments, we learn to spin our wheels in various pursuits, whether decent or otherwise. And if we ever do get married, we come well-heeled- not with money, but with various habits, many of which may not be felicitous to matrimonial unity.