Running Head: MARRIAGE AND MONEY 1
Marriage and Money
A discussion of the effects of the economy on marriage
Olivia Rusdal
Arizona State University
This paper was prepared for Marriage and Family Relationships, taught by Mrs. Brougham.
MARRIAGE AND MONEY 2 Children are born every day and as they grow up, they gathering experiences to create goals, dreams and aspirations. As adults these goals become realities and with today’s changing economy, some of them can shift. In the past the social norm was a “rural-based economy” (5), for the man to be the breadwinner, take care of the family financially and participate in hard labor, while the woman was to take care of the children, the house and the home-life of
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“Overall, married adults have made greater economic gains over the past four decades than unmarried adults” (2). The economy falling leads to desperate measures in those seeking work. People fortunate enough to maintain a job, tend to be working long hard hours in order to keep their job. For single people, this consumes the time that would normally be spent in their search for a mate. For married couples, this creates an entirely different set of issues.
MARRIAGE AND MONEY 3
Working in the current economy has increased the job stress influences the people of the work force. “Work and family arc two major domains in our lives” and the true dilemma is how to keep them balanced (3). The decline in the economy makes finding a job and achieving career goals much more difficult. This issue alone can result in additional stress in a marriage, and change people’s thoughts on when or if being married is appropriate. “These days, Americans are more likely than in the past to cohabit, divorce, marry late or not marry at all” (2) and this comes from the lack of funds to sustain a marriage. “Money has the no. 1 point of conflict in the majority of marriages” (6) and as money is a necessity, this increases the statistic that “upon entering a marriage, there is at least a 50% chance that it will end in divorce” (3). This is evidence that “strong marriages take investment”
Numerous amounts of people are opting out of marriage; they feel that because marriages end in divorce anyways, they shouldn’t even try. Carefully, Feldhanh emphasizes slight changes that will help decrease divorce rates such as being college educated; he also mentions how cohabiting might increase the possibilities of divorce. Uniting in marriage too young is also a factor in these high divorce rates, and it is recommended that couples marry after their mid-twenties in order to increase the possibility of reaching their twentieth anniversary. There lacks a perfect equation to make a marriage work, but simple and small details make a difference (pp.
In ‘Till Debt Do Us Part’ by Mary Loftus, she explains just how Americans in a relationship are affected by money in a positive and in a negative way. Well over sixty percent of women and male enter a marriage with some debt, which places tension on the relationship and takes the focus away from future financial goals (99). Concealing your financial transactions can cause legal issues and can be detrimental to your relationship, and can ultimately weaken the relationship (100). Women and men both grumble that the other isn’t doing enough to provide financially, which affects their relationship (101). The idea that men are supposed to work and women are supposed to be housewives like many years ago, can go against the couple if the women earns a lot more and can cause unnecessary hostility (102). Marriage requires effort from both parties, even with the abundance of issues of money, couples should plot their financial lives rather than avoiding it (102).
The bar charts illustrate changes in marriage and divorces levels, during 30 years, from 1970 until 2000 and also the more detailed look at American’s demographic in the beginning year and the year end. Overall, it is clear that population of marriage was declining during the period, although it received the highest rate with mark difference in each year. We can see that marriage achieved a peak of 2.5 million during two first decades, while this figure was not stable in the further years. It tailed off before reaching around 2 million in 2000. However, divorce rate rose steadily from 1 million in 1970 to a peak of just under 1.5 million in 1980.
In Andrew J. Cherlin’s essay “American Marriage In Transition”, he discusses how marriage in America is evolving from the universal marriage. Cherlin’s definition of the universal marriage in his essay is the man is the breadwinner of the household and the woman is the homemaker. In the 20th century according to Cherlin, the meaning of marriage has been altered such as the changing division of labor, childbearing outside of marriage, cohabitation, gay marriage and the result of long- term cultural and material trends (1154). During the first transition of marriage, Cherlin discusses how in America, Europe, and Canada the only socially accepted way to have sexual relations with a person and to have children is to be married (1154). The second change in marriage occurred in 2000, where the median age of marriage in the United States for men is 27 and women is 25 (1155). Many young adults stayed single during this time and focused on their education and starting their careers. During the second change, the role of law increasingly changed, especially in the role of law in divorce (1155). It is proven in today’s research marriage has a different definition than what it did back in the 1950’s. Today marriage can be defined as getting married to the same gender or getting remarried to someone who already has kids. The roles in a marriage are evolving to be a little more flexible and negotiable. However, women still do a lot of the basic household chores and taking care of the
They surveyed 115 cohabitators from working lower and middle classes. The article describes how the economy effects marital decision making, it also shows how these people perceive financial issues as important to marriage. Also, that people think that marriage will change their lives, people think marriage should only occurs once finically set. The investigation and methods they use to complete this article was in-depth. They use racially and ethnically diverse people of both genders. Manning, Smock and Porter take in different aspects like education, personal income, and employment statuses. Findings show that income varies significantly by race/ethnicity and gender. The survey is adequate for gathering
This contention overlooks very much recorded changes sought after that have brought on the profit of numerous Americans to decrease. The decrease in marriage is concentrated among these exceptionally same Americans. A vast group of confirmation connects the decrease in business and profit for less-gifted specialists to globalization, mechanical change, and changes in labor market foundations—changes past the capacity of people to control regardless of what their qualities are. To cite an evidence, as appeared on The Daily Signal website, from 2001 to 2011, the marriage rate dropped by 10.3 relational unions for every 1,000 unmarried ladies, or 22.8 percent. Since the 1960s, it has fallen by around 50
As stated in our text, various factors can bind married couples together, such as economic interdependencies, legal, social and moral constraints, relationship, and amongst other things. In the recent years some of these factors have diminished their strengths. The modern generation sees marriage in a different perspective altogether. Individuals today feel they are stable independently, they do not need to rely on their spouse for emotional or financial support. Many are career driven and soar to conquer their dreams over settling down with a family. Such untraditional views have increased divorce rates.
An earlier generation of scholars assumed that wives' employment and income are risk factors for divorce. More recent evidence, however, is mixed about the strength and even the direction of this association (Rogers, 2004; Sayer & Bianchi, 2000; Schoen, Rogers, & Amato, 2006). On the basis of research from the last decade, several conclusions seem likely. First, wives' employment has the potential to generate tension between spouses over the household division of labor. Frisco and Williams (2003) found that perceived unfairness in the division of household labor was associated with decreased marital happiness among spouses and an increased likelihood of divorce. Similarly, Amato, Booth, Johnson, and Rogers (2007) found that wives' hours of employment tended to increase spouses' perceptions of marital problems. The authors also found, however, that wives' earned income improved other dimensions of marital quality
In the article “What if Marriage is Bad for Us?” Laurie Essig and Lynn Owens summarize the things that
In years past, the American Dream for most young girls’ is to grow up and be married to Prince Charming and to “Live Happily Ever After!” Although this may be expected - it is rarely fulfilled. Marriage is the legal and binding union between a man and woman. Yet when couples marry, they vow to stay by their partner’s side ‘till death do us part.’ Currently that vow seems to have little or no value in today’s society. The current statistics for survival of marriage are quite grim. The divorce rate in the United States is somewhere between 50 percent and a startling 67 percent. (KSL News) One contributing factor the growing epidemic of divorce is the parting of different family
Diverse ways of managing money, different financial incomes, and an absence of cash can create great tension in a marriage. In fact, statistics in a survey conducted by Citibank on the divorce rates in the United States suggested that more than fifty percent of divorced couples referred to financial problems as the cause of their divorce. If the couples have children, cash turns out to be significantly more crucial to the relationship. Many individuals refer to money as the reason for their separation. If there is not enough financial care, it causes a barrier in the relationship which is what essentially leads the couple to
Economics is the study of human behavior based on cost-benefits analysis. They deal with scarcity, the unlimited wants humans have and limited resources that’s available (“What Do Economists Do”). Marriage is based on the idea that both partners will dedicate the rest of their lives together, through sickness and adversities. The majority of couples that goes into holy matrimony expecting the relationship to last forever. Studies have shown that divorce rates have been on the rise to over 50% in the past decade (McElory 1). People who jump into marriage without first laying a solid foundation of learning and understanding their partners; seeing eye to eye on various issues, will be more prone to divorce. Marriage patterns are based partly on age and education status.
Modern, contemporary society’s mindset on marriage has shifted considerably over the years. Some research has noted the increase in early sexual experiences, greater acceptance of cohabitation and the increase in narcissistic tendencies, are complicating and muddying the ideals of what marriage means to people today. Research done on this subject resulted in several studies that found that spouses who did not believe that marriage would last forever, were less likely to commit to the relationship financially and were more likely to have extramarital affairs.
A survey of 14000 adults states in ‘A Guide to Family Issues: The Marriage Advantage’ that marriage was a pertinent factor contributing to happiness and satisfaction with forty percent of the married individuals being happy as opposed to 25 percent of either single or cohabiting individuals. The same study shows that ninety eight percent of never married respondents wished to marry and out of those 88% believed that it should be a lifelong commitment. Even though, divorce rates are rising numerous researches show that young people aspire to have a lasting marriage.
Indeed, it has been estimated that arguments about money are dominant in 90 percent of divorce cases. Yet, even though a couple might stay together, the quality of the marriage may suffer if their focus is based on money and material things. The more financial problems that there are in a marriage, the more irritable and quick-tempered the couples can become, with each blaming the other for their debt problem. Everybody is preoccupied running after money; they forget themselves and their children. There is no time for relationship and raising the children the right way. The determination to be rich can cause tension in a marriage very easily, and that’s exactly what is happening here with many American families and around the