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Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

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Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#161

Post by magic_beans »

ben_jones wrote: post #103
combatentropy wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistically though, married people have more money. "married women can pay as much as $1 million less than their single counterparts over a lifetime" "married men between 28 and 30 years old earn around $15,900 more a year in individual income compared to their single counterparts, while married men between 44 and 46 years old make $18,800 more than single men of the same ages" + other benefits https://www.business…

Is it worth it though? A married man may feel the need to provide for his family and make career choices that are detrimental to his family and himself in order to do so.

This is a very narrow view that assumes the man's partner is not contributing.

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#163

Post by Broken_Hippo »

mortenjorck wrote: post #160
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is quite common. Public benefits are a strange thing and have really odd loopholes at times. For example: I had a friend that lived with her boyfriend and they had a child. The state wanted to take child support from his check to give to her for the child even though they lived at the same address . I worked with a woman that kept below a certain amount of hours per week while working. This was simply be…

Yes, this is a very real problem. I’m close to someone who has to actively turn down freelance work past a certain point because they will no longer qualify for Medicaid and still be far short of affording an ACA plan. Obviously the “solution” is to get a lot more work all at once to get out of that financial gap, but it’s hard to do.

Definitely is difficult and I personally think it is ridiculous to expect. The better solution would be to rework laws so that folks working come out ahead. I imagine this would include having benefits reduce more slowly than small income gains. If anything, the benefit losses should mirror the gains as it makes no sense to punish making $50 more with a $100 loss.

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#164

Post by magic_beans »

neogodless wrote: post #91
sidstling wrote: post #9

I wonder how much cost plays in, I mean, my fiancée and I are adult middle class millennials and we’ve been saving for two years to have a wedding, and we’re planning a relatively cheap one.

My advice? Don't have a relatively cheap wedding. Have a _cheap_ wedding. (Do not waste two years of your life making money that you blow on 6 hours of rituals.) Our wedding cost less than $1000 (near Philadelphia, so HCOL area), and is described by friends as "beautiful" and "one of my all-time favorites."

How did you pull that off?

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#165

Post by 52-6F-62 »

aceon48 wrote: post #127
52-6F-62 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think about this from time-to-time. My partner and I know we couldn't afford children now, though she's constantly ..."noticing the clock ticking". I'd like children some day. But what makes me snicker is it sounds exactly like the beginning of Idiocracy.

And Federal Reserve officials laugh when people suggest their policies and currency debasement causes declining birth rates. Their inflationary policies and increasing cost to live absolutely affect the ability and willingness of people to have children.

On some significantly higher level you might have some aspects correct, there.

That said— I'm Canadian.

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#166

Post by x220 »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #123
sakopov wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That movie got a heck of a lot right. Still amusingly scary at times.

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/603/

That comic is fake news. I can't find the source, but the Economist made a pretty good graph with good data demonstrating that when you control for certain factors, poor people and people with measured below average IQ definitely are more likely to have children. I saw the graph I'm referring to a couple years ago on the Economist website.

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#167

Post by Freak_NL »

magic_beans wrote: post #158
gumby wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given that marriage often means you end up with the lower of the two credit scores Does anyone actually think this way?? Honestly I can’t imagibe ever thinking financially when I proposed.

Of course people think this way. It's foolish not to, especially when couples can commit to each other in so many ways other than legal marriage. I'm shocked there's someone on hacker news who doesn't.

Thinking in terms of credit scores seems to be a US thing though. Sure, when you consider marriage you will be aware of each other's financial situation (including debts), and ideally you'll be living together and sharing finances for a couple of years already (ten years in my case), but credit scores seem pretty localized.

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#168

Post by x220 »

pmiller2 wrote: post #138
aceon48 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Federal Reserve officials laugh when people suggest their policies and currency debasement causes declining birth rates. Their inflationary policies and increasing cost to live absolutely affect the ability and willingness of people to have children.

I don’t think 3% inflation is affecting anybody’s willingness to have children. Do you have a source for that?

3% isn't much, but over, say, 20 years of constant 3% inflation, that's 80% inflation total. Now this is just a quick math example and it's not the real situation, but it goes to demonstrate that over time inflation has a large effect. You could argue that over time this huge effect of inflation along with the stagnation of wages makes it so that people can't support previous standards of living, including supporting children. That's just my two cents--I haven't taken a single class on macroeconomics.

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#169

Post by SilasX »

combatentropy wrote: post #149
SilasX wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that doesn't establish whether it's more "competent/conscientious/whatever" people being more likely to marry, vs the marriage itself causing higher market productivity.

Well, either the marriage itself causes more productivity, or there are fewer competent and conscientious people alive in America today.

If you're talking about falling marriage rates, then that's still not true either; the benefits of marriage may fall too (and still would be irrelevant to the point about past correlations between marriage and income).

Re: Millennials Are Causing the U.S. Divorce Rate to Plummet

#170

Post by ryanobjc »

magic_beans wrote: post #158
gumby wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given that marriage often means you end up with the lower of the two credit scores Does anyone actually think this way?? Honestly I can’t imagibe ever thinking financially when I proposed.

Of course people think this way. It's foolish not to, especially when couples can commit to each other in so many ways other than legal marriage. I'm shocked there's someone on hacker news who doesn't.

A meta comment, this kind of thread is why I don't respect hackernews commenters anymore. It frequently goes like so:

- Comment: Something - Reply: But my experience says otherwise, why are you so wrong?

There is a persistent lack of ability to see other people's point of view. Surely it is not everyone here, but it's enough such that things get really boring here.

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