Sep
30
Posted on 09-30-2007 at 08:13am
Hey, we’re not really half-bad!
Filed Under (Ethics, Relationships) by John Hutcheson on 09-30-2007

According to this fine piece of information brought to us by the fine Southern Beale, it turns out that half the marriages in the US really DON’T end in divorce despite what I’ve heard from most pulpits, teachers, media and the old dude I used to buy hamburgers from down the street. In fact, despite the moral end of civilization as we know it, and to put it in the words of John, Paul, George and Ringo - it’s getting better all the time.

The story of ever-increasing divorce is a powerful narrative. It is also wrong. In fact, the divorce rate has been falling continuously over the past quarter-century, and is now at its lowest level since 1970. While marriage rates are also declining, those marriages that do occur are increasingly more stable. For instance, marriages that began in the 1990s were more likely to celebrate a 10th anniversary than those that started in the 1980s, which, in turn, were also more likely to last than marriages that began back in the 1970s.

This honestly good news comes from one of yesterday’s op-ed pieces in the NY Times.

My wife and I recently survived soared past one of those significant milestone anniversaries. I was beginning to feel quite superior to many of the great divorced unwashed masses, but now I realize that our achievement has been lessened….sheesh I can’t win.*

*If you live in a town that doesn’t GET irony**, that last paragraph is one of those moments where the writer is just joshin’.

**One of my favorite movie quotes: “We haven’t had any irony here since about, uh, ‘83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at‘.

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Comments

Jeffraham Prestonian on 30 September, 2007 at 8:32 am #

Oh, Newt! The humanity! The humanity!
.


Music » Hey, we’re not really half-bad! on 30 September, 2007 at 8:36 am #

[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt… to us by the fine Southern Beale, it turns out that half the marriages in the US really DON’T end in divorce despite what I’ve heard from most pulpits, teachers, media and the old dude I used to buy hamburgers from down the street. … […]


nm on 30 September, 2007 at 10:01 am #

And here I thought I was special because every wedding I’ve ever been to (with the exception of those of one often-married cousin) has led to nothing but anniversaries. You mean that’s just … normal? I am sooooo bummed.*

*What John said about irony.


chez bez on 30 September, 2007 at 10:32 am #

Roxanne. ;)


Mack on 30 September, 2007 at 12:18 pm #

Yes, but i have also heard that more and more young people are eschewing marriage. hard to get divorced when you are just shackin…


Southern Beale on 30 September, 2007 at 2:27 pm #

Yes, but i have also heard that more and more young people are eschewing marriage. hard to get divorced when you are just shackin…

Ahem.

Hence, from the op-ed piece, “While marriage rates are also declining, those marriages that do occur are increasingly more stable. For instance, marriages that began in the 1990s were more likely to celebrate a 10th anniversary than those that started in the 1980s, which, in turn, were also more likely to last than marriages that began back in the 1970s.”


Anonymous on 30 September, 2007 at 6:02 pm #

As an amateur statistician, this common misuse of the marriage/divorce statistics has always driven me nuts. Basically, someone once took a look at the number of recorded marriages in a given year and noted that the number of divorces that took place in that year was roughly half that number. Somehow they concluded that this meant that half of all marriages end in divorce.

Good thing that innumeracy doesn’t lead to failed marriages or the divorce rate would likely be a lot higher than 50%…