I dont think anyone said male influence is entirely responsible for today's societical problems, but is up at the top of the list. There are most certainly many more issues at hand.
That doesn't do anything for the kids whose parents have dropped the ball and it doesn't do anything for society. When you talk about the importance of personal responsibility without having a plan for supporting those children who are victims of irresponsibility then you're just talking out of your ass.
I understand that it can happen in the suburbs as well as in the inner city but there is a huge difference between growing up in suburbia and the hood. Couple that with having no father figure and having the inner city influences and lack of economic progress makes it more prevalent in the inner city. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. but exceptions do not equate as the norm in these instances. just like one poster stated divorced families still have, normally, contact with their fathers who provide influence as well as finances.
didnt say it was. Of course its a culmination of things but I'm taking one of those and expounding on why I believe it tends to be more of a factor. Of course I ask the question knowing a bit about it since I've grown up in the inner city, didnt live with my father but was influenced by him. I also went to school with other inner city children with and without fathers and eventhough there were exceptions to the rule, saw how there tended to be a huge difference in how they were.