Affordable Family Formation

Mickey Kaus points us to Steve Sailer's very interesting post on the key to Republican electoral success: "Affordable Family Formation."

Sailer notes four categories making up this idea:

* "The Dirt Gap"--land supply around cities which drives the cost of housing.

* "The Mortgage Gap"--"Bush carred the 20 states with the cheapest housing costs, while Kerry won the 9 states with the most expensive."

* "The Marriage Gap"--"Bush carried the top 25 states ranked on 'years married'."

* "The Baby Gap"--"Bush carried 25 of the top 26 states in white total fertility . . . while Kerry was victorious in the bottom 16."

None of these "gaps" is new, but Sailer's the first person I've seen to combine them into a unified field theory of financial family incentives. Thought provoking stuff.