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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| How Did Marriage Become a Mark of Privilege? |
| 2017-09-26 |
| [NYTIMES] Marriage, which used to be the default way to form a family in the United States, regardless of income or education, has become yet another part of American life reserved for those who are most privileged. Because a marriage license is really, really expensive. Fewer Americans are marrying over all, and whether they do so is more tied to socioeconomic status than ever before. In recent years, marriage has sharply declined among people without college degrees, while staying steady among college graduates with higher incomes. Currently, 26 percent of poor adults, 39 percent of working-class adults and 56 percent of middle- and upper-class adults ages 18 to 55 are married, according to a research brief published today from two think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute and Opportunity America. In 1990, more than half of adults were married, with much less difference based on class and education: 51 percent of poor adults, 57 percent of working-class adults and 65 percent of middle- and upper-class adults were married. A big reason for the decline: Unemployed men are less likely to be seen as marriage material. But they're good material for shacking, having children, buying cars, and taking out mortgages on houses. “Women don’t want to take a risk on somebody who’s not going to be able to provide anything,” said Sharon Sassler, a sociologist at Cornell who published “Cohabitation Nation: Gender, Class, and the Remaking of Relationships” with Amanda Jayne Miller last month. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 'Privilege' is the SJW code word for success. I totally forget where I saw it, but somebody said, "When you say 'white privilege', what you mean is my culture is better than yours". tl;dr: "acting white", even if you are not, is a better way to get ahead in America than tribal savagery. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2017-09-26 22:09 |
| #7 Good grief. I'm white, male, heterosexual, AND married. I'm totally screwed! Next thing you know they'll be telling us that anyone over 6' tall has "height privilege." In which case, I'm double-screwed. |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2017-09-26 18:45 |
| #6 'Privilege' is the SJW code word for success. Given the Left is a long trail of failure, they can't accept the problem is within themselves. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-09-26 17:43 |
| #5 Marriage is a privilege. I started to type "white privilege" since these two words have recently been wedded together so frequently. The NYT's writer must never have had a really, really bad marriage--one that is both scary and scarring. Those who have had such a marriage don't usually think of the word "privilege"--they usually think of "escape." |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2017-09-26 16:18 |
| #4 It's not that the poor don't marry so much as the married don't stay poor. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-09-26 14:29 |
| #3 When you are out to destroy the middle class, |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-09-26 07:09 |
| #2 gorb - I concur - the NYT isn't even close to acknowledging that the flightiness of the the 1969 revolution, alongside the Johnson rewards for being unmarried (they continue to grow with more kids), as well as the predation to legally capture targets of unsuspecting guys for financial gain. |
| Posted by: Fairbanks 2017-09-26 03:01 |
| #1 Bull$hit. Most of it is so they can claim more benefits. |
| Posted by: gorb 2017-09-26 01:25 |