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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

#141

Post by thaumasiotes »

icedchai wrote: post #57
pastor_elm wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An upper middle-class wedding on the coasts at any venue goes for a minimum of 30k. A really cheap wedding is just having in your back yard with a keg, but I don't think the OP is talking about that. A nice wedding with all your college buddies, looking at 100k.

I had a cousin who had a wedding costing 250K+.

There are only two good reasons to do that:

- You earn your living based on social connections to rich people, making the wedding a business expense.

- $250,000 was pocket change that you happened to have on hand.

If you had to save money in order to pay $250K for your wedding, that was a large and obvious mistake.

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

#142

Post by [deleted] »

dleslie wrote: post #112
itchyouch wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldnt the divorce rate go higher then? Since its out of convenience/benefits, once one finds a partner, they divorce and remarry.

Only if you think you need to divorce to enter into another relationship. I have friends who live with new partners but are married to someone else altogether; they see the process of getting divorced as an unnecessary and expensive hassle. Really, how much of our social rituals are thus so encumbered to the primary benefit of bureaucrats and lawyers?

[deleted]

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

#143

Post by devit »

combatentropy wrote: post #94
odyssey7 wrote: post #75

Millennials are forced to be more careful, because they're climbing a difficult and important ladder into financial security. Most people I know who aren't looking to marry are just very aware that this is not the right time for them, neither finically nor in relation to achieving their professional goals.

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…

Another possible explanation is that unmarried people are likely to spend more time and effort pursuing new relationships instead of making money.

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

#144

Post by dropit_sphere »

smoll wrote: post #34
jandrese wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bottom of the article says that they are also getting married less. Basically, back when the Baby Boomers were young it was a major source of shame to have sex outside of marriage for a lot of people, so they got married early and then discovered that it wasn't a good match. Lucky for them the divorce option was available at least. These days kids are much more free to experiment before they tie the knot and aren…

Wasn’t it just the sensible thing to do back when the definition of what people today think of as a “sin” was invented? Imagine if safe, reliable, widely-available contraception was around when they were first formulating it, I bet the rules would have been way different. I guess we could extend the metaphor perpetually - if there was no biological clock or aging at all, the rules might be completely different again.

That sort of behavior tends to get selected out over time.

Generally when women feel like they have the option to do so, they tend to delay marriage and have fewer children.

This is good for personal comfort, but less good for societal survival. The Roman situation the sibling commenter mentioned is relevant, as is a comparative analysis of birthrates worldwide.

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

#145

Post by smegger001 »

EADGBE wrote: post #131
philwelch wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do married people have more money, or do more financially secure people get married?

The second one; marriage isn't free. Even at the courthouse.

When my wife and I married we made a profit on our wedding but we set a reasonable budget for it.

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

#146

Post by ChuckMcM »

philwelch wrote: post #99
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…

Do married people have more money, or do more financially secure people get married?

Married people sharing a household retain more of their income (so have more money) than non-married people who are each managing their expenses.

Many bills (like utilities) often have a base component and a variable component, you pay only one base component if you live in the same house.

Rents for two studio apartments are greater than the rents for a single bedroom apartment, two one bedroom apartments go for more than one 2 bedroom apartment. A chunk of that is the shared square footage of bathrooms, kitchen, Etc.

Food costs in bulk are lower than food costs in single serving quantities. It is more cost effective to cook for two than it is to cook for one (save on energy costs and food)

Yes, being married (not having kids), will give you access to more money than you would have if you remain single.

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

#147

Post by module0000 »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #92
odyssey7 wrote: post #75

Millennials are forced to be more careful, because they're climbing a difficult and important ladder into financial security. Most people I know who aren't looking to marry are just very aware that this is not the right time for them, neither finically nor in relation to achieving their professional goals.

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.

Be careful - there is no undo button. A lot of us on the other side encouraging you to have kids can be explained by an old adage..."misery loves company". YMMV.

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

#148

Post by ethanwillis »

klank wrote: post #70
jandrese wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't, but it is at the bottom of the article so maybe the author can back it up?

I think what I was responding to was the implied causal connection between the lack of an "institution" of marriage causing instability in cohabitating adults. The article and linked research don't make that assertion.

Marriage as an institution: - There is stigma attached to divorce. Not as much as their used to be but it's definitely more "jaw dropping" than breaking up with someone you're simply "dating" - Aside from common law marriage there are more financial impacts to divorce - Divorce requires social and/or legal rituals in order to dissolve the union. Regular dating just requires "I'm breaking up with you" and moving out if living together. It's much less formal.

These are just off the top of my head. Marriage as an institution definitely does raise the bar relative to dating in how stressful mentally and financially dissolution of a relationship is.

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

#149

Post by combatentropy »

SilasX wrote: post #104
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…

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.

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

#150

Post by sulam »

They really buried the lede. There are two things happening here that can arguably be traced to one cause:

Educated millennials apparently see marriage as something you do _after_ you've finished establishing yourself. It is a goal, not a given.

Uneducated millennials apparently have the _same_ point of view, but they aren't established and therefore they aren't getting married.

Given that marriage often means you end up with the lower of the two credit scores, you're on the hook for debts, you're going to be paying jointly filed taxes regardless of future marital status, etc -- it absolutely makes sense not to get married until you're financially established. Now that the mystique of marriage is broken (thanks to those baby boomers get divorced in record numbers), it's no longer a rite of passage into adulthood.

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