I totally agree with you. If everyone would just follow the "success sequence": finish at least high school, get a stable job, and get married before having children, then they would greatly reduce the risk of falling into poverty.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sequence-is-the-secret-to-success-1522189894Also, many people, especially blacks and Hispanics, need to stop having biological children with more than one person, a phenomenon called "multiple partner fertility" or MPF. 1 in 5 parents with two or more children have biological children with more than one partner. Of course, some of these children are born from remarriages, but having a first birth outside of marriage increases the odds of entering "multi-partner fertility."
An extensive body of research has linked MPF with negative child well-being. One reason is that MPF can diminish a parent's ability to parent well. For example, a recently published
study by Paula Fomby found that mothers with MPF are more likely to experience depression and parenting stress than mothers who have biological children with only one father. Another consistent finding related to child well-being in MPF families is that these children tend to have less involved fathers. In a presentation about her study, Marcia Carlson
explained that the MPF fathers often spend less time and resources on their biological children from former unions.
For children, MPF is associated with a greater risk of behavior problems, poor academic performance, adolescent drug use, and depression. A
recent study by Cynthia Osborne and Paula Fomby using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study found that MPF was "robustly related to self-reported delinquency and teacher-reported behavior problems" among children born to married mothers.
https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-multiple-partner-fertility-influences-child-well-being