photo by ArtChick
Research shows marriage is responsible for the creation of wealth – so why aren’t millennials interested?
Generation Screwed
By Naomi Schaefer Riley
October 20, 2014 | 7:47pm
The attitudes of millennials toward marriage are getting harder and harder to understand.
This is a demographic whose economic prospects have never looked good.
They are coming of age at a time when college tuition is at record levels, student debt has surpassed a trillion dollars, houses (even after the bubble popping) are unaffordable, unemployment remains stubbornly high and wages have stagnated in recent years.
It’s no wonder they’ve been nicknamed “The Screwed Generation.”
So you’d think that if research shows there is something that could be a surefire way of improving their economic lot, they would grab hold of it like a life preserver. Well, you’d be wrong.
In fact, research has shown marriage to be responsible for the significant creation of wealth — yet millennials don’t seem interested. The average age of a first marriage for men is 29 and for women it’s 27. Many are simply not marrying at all.
Almost half of children born to women under 30 are out-of-wedlock births now, according to a recent study by Child Trends, a Washington-based research group.
https://nypost.com/2014/10/20/generation-screwed/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow
Despite their overtures of altruism, they are incredibly selfish, lazy, and in a state of arrested development. Never before has there been such a generation of perpetual children who say they want to reinvent the world, but tend to drift towards the narcissism of social media and hanging out. They can barely stay in a job, let alone commit to something as committed as marriage. Yes, they are academically gifted, but if this is our hope of being the working generation while we’re in retirement, we’re fucked!
#1–I disagree that there is anything fundmentally wrong with the millennial generation. Circumstances, both social and economic, are driving much of the delay in marriage. If there were ever a narcissistic generation it is the one I grew up in (I am about 60). I have every confidence millennials will build a solid future for themselves and for the nation.
Also, if you are getting married for the purpose of “wealth creation” you will probably wind up with neither wealth nor a marriage.
Because divorce is the #1 destroyer of wealth?
You don’t understand the concept. Wealth creation is due to one marrying a more-wealthy partner, which is what you seem to infer. Marriage and wealth creation come about because of a shared commitment to building a family, which typically happens due to an increased awareness of responsibility (e.g. career) and real estate investment.
The only way to create wealth in marriage is to marry someone with a bigger checkbook.
#1 hit the nail on the head.