Guardian- In 1960, three-quarters of American adults were married. Today, just half are. Some are getting hitched later, but the share of those who never do has been rising steadily in recent decades, and research increasingly suggests money worries are a factor driving this trend. Nearly half of never-married adults with incomes under $30,000 say being financially insecure is a major reason. Millennials delay marriage in order to form a more perfect union, poll suggests
Marriage has become a mark of status, increasingly the preserve of the wealthy and educated. Today, 26% of poor, 39% of working-class, and 56% of middle- and upper-class adults aged 18 to 55 are married, according to research by Opportunity America and the American Enterprise Institute. This compares with 51%, 57% and 65% respectively in 1990.
3 comments:
Hypergamy unleashed.
Before hilter's germany came into power long term economic depression raised a sitting army of youth unable to marry and have children--a waiting army of desperate revolutioaries. A simular situation is forming up today in the western republics.
The elite's information sources verses the masses is a major battle zone of the future. If the republic can only handle the illusion of true free speech then of course alternative information sources must be crushed in the near future or all the republics will be in trouble. However crushing true free speech at that level will also destroy any illusion of democracy in those republics as they are designed today. This trap is facing mankind into the future, it will be sprung by long term major economic crisis. The future is unknown to me but that is a strong possibility.
Elites and republics of the west will likely crush free speech on the internet because of war, terrorism, economic collapse, etc, any excuse will do as it must be done.
At that point the global new dark age will begin, the only relief that is understood by the desperate is new break up sucession movements everywhere, this has already started all over the world. Of course new little simular republics are not that different than what they come from so in general the chaos will continue.
If and when the world emerges at any meaningful measure from the looming dark age depends a ending of major wars and a new global balance of political economy. Via balance of power between elites and mass.
I personally believe it is far past time to create new better alternative democracy designs and when these are successful they encourage the end of the coming dark age.
If a dark age starts it can be any length of time, depends on choices; 100 years, 1000's of years.
Note, today's despotic republics can't handle true free speech on the internet, it does not look like to me the western republics can't either. The third world like crazyness has greatly increased on all western media in very recent times.
We shall see, it should shake out in a decade or so, a clearer trend toward global dark age or not? Can the western elites keep the illusion of free speech enough and their wealth and their republics?
The wedding industry is built on making weddings similar to a coronation. It's the one day in a woman's life that she is supposed to be a princess. The media and press make such a big deal of lavish weddings that regular working people will spend way beyond their means just to get married.
I used to work in a fabric store, and watching brides, especially young brides, spends huge amounts of money on all the fancy trimmings for their weddings, was painful. $50,000 is not an uncommon price tag for a wedding, and frequently the cost is much larger. Of course starting married life just out of college with not only student loans, but a $40,000 wedding debt, makes divorce almost certain. It's one thing if the parents/family want a big wedding and are willing to pay for it, but some families expect the young couple to pay for a wedding they will never be able to afford. Money fights drive couples apart, and there is nothing like a pricy wedding paid for by credit to destroy any chance of a happy marriage. it doesn't have to be this way, but too many people don't seem to understand that.
In 2004, my husband and I went down to the court house and got married for $75. My lavender silk dress was $125, I bought the fabric and sewed it myself, in a classic style that I have used again, for my parents 50th anniversary, and will wear it again for my husband's 25 year dinner at his work this fall. My husband wore his interview/wedding/funeral suit with a new shirt and tie. Our honeymoon was 4 days at the coast, 100 miles from home and in an affordable hotel. The only place we really spent money was on our rings about $5000 for the pair, which we knew we could have gone less expensive, but we would be wearing them for the rest of our lives.
There a plenty of other ways to save money when getting married. I have friends that have bought estate rings and saved money. I've been to wedding potlucks where the guests bring a dish for the dinner. My brother rented a local park's flower garden for the service. My cousin was married in my uncle's back yard. I sewed one friend's wedding dress for the couple's wedding gift, because her Italian Catholic family demanded she wear a big white dress, but gave her a $150 budget (in 1988), and she wanted to have a wedding dress to be buried in. There are plenty of ways to make weddings truly affordable, but look at a brides magazine about weddings, and $25,000 is considered a painfully cheap wedding.
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