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Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

seattletimes.com

11–20 of 209 posts

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#11
post #2

How many of these never-married men are in a relationship? Unmarried != single. Stats on the number of singles who have never been in a relationship would be far more valuable. Relationships, sexual or otherwise, are not subject to paperwork. The days of relationships, sex, or even reproduction being tied to marriage are long gone.

The label “single” is weird.

In most cases it just means “not in a relationship” and doesn’t tell you about marital status. But if you’re in specifically asking about marriage, it can mean unwed (and I’m sure it gets even trickier for poly relationships).

If a flirty stranger approaches and asks “are you single”, you’d say no “no, I’m in a relationship”

If you’re filling out a form at the doctor office and it asks “marital status”, you’d put “single”.

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#12
post #9
post #2

How many of these never-married men are in a relationship? Unmarried != single. Stats on the number of singles who have never been in a relationship would be far more valuable. Relationships, sexual or otherwise, are not subject to paperwork. The days of relationships, sex, or even reproduction being tied to marriage are long gone.

Anecdotal but my friends don’t try at all anymore or they don’t put in any effort and pretend that’s not their problem (read: you need to shower daily). It’s stupid because the combination of singles mixers, tinder, and community events make it very easy to find a partner (keeping them is another story) but nobody wants to try. I’m of the opinion that porn has sapped their will to find women, even though it’s very po…

Or maybe the porn gives them everything they need from a relationship and we’re seeing that there’s a larger segment that genuinely doesn’t need/want to be in a relationship.

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#13

> As marriage becomes less popular among younger generations, Seattle men have hit a milestone of singledom: For the first time, half of the men living in the city have never been married. How can this logical fallacy pass through editorialising? As marriage becomes less popular, for the same number of couples, you will have fewer marriages but not more singles.

"Single" for the purposes of this just means "not married". They don't care if the man has a girlfriend, situationship or polycule. If a person isn't married, they're single for the sake of taxes, census data, etc.

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#15

I do want to point out that never-married by looking at legal paperwork is a blunt instrument. There are reasons, especially for dual high earners, to not get a marriage license. Examples of tax-related things that don’t double when married; -Income tax brackets above about $200k -SALT cap -Mortgage interest deduction -HSA contributions (if have children) -Dependent care FSA contributions

Yeah this sort of analysis really requires survey data. As a widowed male, i gained an appreciation of the complexity of things.

I’m not dating someone young enough to be my daughter, so the pool of available women consists of divorcees, widows, long-term single and various flavors of married and dating. Divorced people and widows have strong incentives, as spousal support and survivors benefits for children are contingent on not being re-married.

Also, if you’re not planning to have children with a partner and have money that’s worth litigating over, (or property that was your late spouse that should go to a child) marriage complicates that.

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#16
My anecdote: We had offices in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle and Portland) at a previous company.

A lot of young people worked in those offices. It was basically a rite of passage for them to move just outside of Seattle around the time they were getting married.

This was so widely understood that it factored into decisions about where to locate office buildings and influences remote and hybrid policy. If you wanted to attract and retain more experienced employees then being in-office only in the middle of the city was risky.

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#17

I do want to point out that never-married by looking at legal paperwork is a blunt instrument. There are reasons, especially for dual high earners, to not get a marriage license. Examples of tax-related things that don’t double when married; -Income tax brackets above about $200k -SALT cap -Mortgage interest deduction -HSA contributions (if have children) -Dependent care FSA contributions

- Collapsing two legal entities into effectively one. In the days of the healthcare cartel and other hyperfinancialized shakedowns, this seems like a poor idea. Corpos hire armies of lawyers to create new legal entities so their owners can escape liability. It seems foolish to sign a piece of paper that undermines your main access to that dynamic.

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#18

I do want to point out that never-married by looking at legal paperwork is a blunt instrument. There are reasons, especially for dual high earners, to not get a marriage license. Examples of tax-related things that don’t double when married; -Income tax brackets above about $200k -SALT cap -Mortgage interest deduction -HSA contributions (if have children) -Dependent care FSA contributions

Isn't this all solved by just filing separately, not jointly?

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal but my friends don’t try at all anymore or they don’t put in any effort and pretend that’s not their problem (read: you need to shower daily). It’s stupid because the combination of singles mixers, tinder, and community events make it very easy to find a partner (keeping them is another story) but nobody wants to try. I’m of the opinion that porn has sapped their will to find women, even though it’s very po…

Or maybe the porn gives them everything they need from a relationship and we’re seeing that there’s a larger segment that genuinely doesn’t need/want to be in a relationship.

[flagged]

Re: Half the men in Seattle are never-married singles, census data shows

#20
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal but my friends don’t try at all anymore or they don’t put in any effort and pretend that’s not their problem (read: you need to shower daily). It’s stupid because the combination of singles mixers, tinder, and community events make it very easy to find a partner (keeping them is another story) but nobody wants to try. I’m of the opinion that porn has sapped their will to find women, even though it’s very po…

Or maybe the porn gives them everything they need from a relationship and we’re seeing that there’s a larger segment that genuinely doesn’t need/want to be in a relationship.

This boggles my mind, porn only takes the place of a very small part of a healthy relationship.
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