Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Are There So Many Single Americans?
New York Times ^ | 21 January 2007 | Kate Zernike

Posted on 01/23/2007 7:11:06 AM PST by shrinkermd

THE news that 51 percent of all women live without a spouse might be enough to make you invest in cat futures.

But consider, too, the flip side: about half of all men find themselves in the same situation. As the number of people marrying has dropped off in the last 45 years, the marriage rate has declined equally for men and for women.

The stereotype has been cemented in the popular culture: the hard-charging career girl who gets her comeuppance, either violently or dying a slow death by late-night memo and Chinese takeout...

But when it comes to marriage, the two Americas aren’t divided by gender. And it’s not the career girls on the losing end. It’s their less educated manicurists or housekeepers, women who might arguably be less able to live on their own.

The emerging gulf is instead one of class — what demographers, sociologists and those who study the often depressing statistics about the wedded state call a “marriage gap” between the well-off and the less so.

Statistics show that college educated women are more likely to marry than non-college educated women — although they marry, on average, two years later.

Women with more education also are becoming less likely to divorce, or inclined to divorce, than those with less education. They are even less likely to be widowed all in all, less likely to end up alone.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: changes; married; single
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 221-240241-260261-280281-288 next last
To: napscoordinator

My take is she has promoted the harlot sex image to young women and has been anti american for years.


261 posted on 01/23/2007 1:39:44 PM PST by OPS4 (Ops4 God Bless America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 196 | View Replies]

To: JenB

But don't you know women only marry so they can take away the guy's house, car, kids, toys, and money?

I know one woman personally who did just that.


262 posted on 01/23/2007 1:41:55 PM PST by freedomfiter2 ("if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great"; de Tocqueville)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 238 | View Replies]

To: gogeo

I believe that the legal system and societal attitudes are really stacked against men. Feminists have sought to change the balance of power in relationships between men and women, if you will, and they have been spectacularly successful. They've also lied to women. I believe they seek a fundamental reordering of society, and they're achieving it.

But even on FR, if you suggest restoring society, all kinds come out of the woodwork.


263 posted on 01/23/2007 1:44:06 PM PST by freedomfiter2 ("if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great"; de Tocqueville)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 239 | View Replies]

To: Borges
I didn't say they did or did not. Rather, I was attacking the urban legend that America was an upright and Puritanical nation until the mid-1960s. The Beatles were emblematic of that era. The rise of secular humanism and moral relativism had little to do with an English band but a lot to do with philosophers like John Dewey and William James and their popularizers in academia, as well as the influence of exiled leftist academics from Europe like Herbert Marcuse and Theodor Adorno. The first successful battles of the "sexual revolution" were waged by people like Margaret Sanger and Alfred Kinsey, whose heyday was in the musical era of Tin Pan Alley (Sanger) or the Big Bands (Kinsey).
264 posted on 01/23/2007 1:52:33 PM PST by Wallace T.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 256 | View Replies]

To: freedomfiter2
Dude, you need to hang out with better women.

Ah well, I think JenB married me for my cool toys too now that I think about it...
265 posted on 01/23/2007 1:56:10 PM PST by TalonDJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 262 | View Replies]

To: TalonDJ

Dude, you need to hang out with better women.

Ah well, I think JenB married me for my cool toys too now that I think about it...


It's been 25 years since I've last seen that one but I'll tell my wife what you advised. Oh, congradulations to you and JenB.


266 posted on 01/23/2007 2:01:47 PM PST by freedomfiter2 ("if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great"; de Tocqueville)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 265 | View Replies]

To: Wallace T.
Not a fan of Pragmatism? :-) Do you dislike C.S. Pierce as well? His focus was more technical then moral I suppose. William James never gets his due as a huge influence on modern thought. They say he wrote philosophy as if it were fiction and his brother Henry wrote fiction as if it were philosophy.
267 posted on 01/23/2007 2:05:47 PM PST by Borges
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 264 | View Replies]

To: freedomfiter2

Thanks. We met here on FR in '04 and got married back in September.


268 posted on 01/23/2007 2:05:49 PM PST by TalonDJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 266 | View Replies]

To: TalonDJ

No I married you for the anime.


269 posted on 01/23/2007 2:10:55 PM PST by JenB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 265 | View Replies]

To: AD from SpringBay
Selfishness and self-centeredness.

Some of us are just ugly.
270 posted on 01/23/2007 2:20:54 PM PST by newguy357
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: JenB; TalonDJ

Personally, I hope to marry into music...maybe musical instruments, too.

Lots of acoustic guitars, mebbe.

And books. Can't ever have too many of those.


271 posted on 01/23/2007 2:23:13 PM PST by RosieCotton
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 269 | View Replies]

To: freedomfiter2
True. I understand that society will be hurt by fewer men being willing to marry.

However, arguing with crazy people will make you insane. A Tom Sowell thread yesterday talked about what he called "the Bar of Reason."

In an era when our media and even our education system exalt emotions, while ignoring facts and logic, perhaps we should not be surprised that so many people explain economics by "greed."

Then...more about money...

Many observers who say that they cannot understand how anyone can be worth $100 million a year do not realize that it is not necessary that they understand it, since it is not their money...

All this to get to the payoff...

The idea that everything must "justify itself before the bar of reason" goes back at least as far as the 18th century. But that just makes it a candidate for the longest-running fallacy in the world.

Given the high degree of specialization in a modern economy, demanding that everything "justify itself before the bar of reason" means demanding that people who know what they are doing must be subject to the veto of people who don't have a clue about the decisions that they are second-guessing.

It means demanding that ignorance override knowledge.

IOW, you can't reason with unreasonable people. This shows up on gasoline threads as the guy who says, "If oil dropped $3/barrel in the last month, why haven't prices at the station down the street moved? It's GREED!!!

It shows up on threads such as this...browse the thread and take your pick. It's becoming the rule, rather than the exception, on FR; it describes most of what passes as political and intellectual discussion today.

It doesn't matter to me whether some "get it," or not. They are not my intended audience. I'm aiming at guys...guys who are not married, guys who continue to be more and more responsible in their relationships, and wonder why as they are more responsible, the relationship gets worse...I'm aiming at women of good faith, such as Rosie, who are as frustrated at what they see as we are.

I'm recommending that they look out for their own interests, and not allow their judgment to be "vetoed" by those who are ignorant by circumstance or design. The societal and legal changes of the past 40 years have been poisonous for men and for families. Many choose to address this, not by attacking the unfairness that exists, but by attacking men for being insufficiently "responsible;" they are counseled to "stop whining." A better, more clear description? "Insufficiently gullible."

They are my audience; I am telling them that they should deal with, and heed counsel from, only those who show good faith in their dealings with them. Many who post here do not qualify.

272 posted on 01/23/2007 2:23:22 PM PST by gogeo (Irony is not one of Islam's core competencies (thx Pharmboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 263 | View Replies]

To: gogeo
re the headline: Too little glue.
273 posted on 01/23/2007 2:28:47 PM PST by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 272 | View Replies]

To: Old Professer

GROAN........


274 posted on 01/23/2007 2:43:52 PM PST by gogeo (Irony is not one of Islam's core competencies (thx Pharmboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 273 | View Replies]

To: freedomfiter2

She let him keep the dog?


275 posted on 01/23/2007 4:23:38 PM PST by null and void (<----- Shocked and odd...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 262 | View Replies]

To: Junior
I was thinking the same thing when reading it.

If she is using the data from the previous article by Roberts she is basing her entire premise on faulty data.

Besides that, all the numbers seems to jumble together so I can not make sense out of her argument.

276 posted on 01/23/2007 5:09:22 PM PST by mware (By all that you hold dear.. on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 258 | View Replies]

To: gogeo

Not sure what your message is but it's pretty clear that whatever "don't" is meant to cover, I haven't, because I'm still single.

Are you saying:
Don't date single Mom's?
Don't bring new rules?
Don't sit in the corner and shut up?


277 posted on 01/23/2007 5:27:11 PM PST by G Larry (Only strict constructionists on the Supreme Court!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 231 | View Replies]

To: G Larry
I'm saying...don't shut up, ever. Decide upon your boundaries, and enforce your boundaries, especially with an existing family unit.

Most men go through the courtship period with company manners, which means we avoid conflict. That time shouldn't be a matter of not rocking the boat...it should be a time of setting expectations. If she has a problem with your expectations, then you have to seriously consider if you have a future together.

She should do the same. You should (IMO) have a clear idea about what your marriage would be like before you say yes.

Men can be wimps. We shouldn't blame women for the situations we helped create. Communicate clearly! If it's not going to work, acknowledge that before the wedding...and make sure you like your spot in the order of priorities.

I hope that spoke clearly.

278 posted on 01/23/2007 5:54:26 PM PST by gogeo (Irony is not one of Islam's core competencies (thx Pharmboy))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 277 | View Replies]

To: gogeo

I have always dated women who are older than me. It's a lot of fun. I only have things in common with ladies that are over 40. They all like to have a lot of fun also.


279 posted on 01/23/2007 6:25:23 PM PST by BobS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 278 | View Replies]

To: shrinkermd

Marriage: The RISKIEST business decision a man can make.


280 posted on 01/23/2007 6:26:57 PM PST by Hammerhead
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 221-240241-260261-280281-288 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson