Millennials, those born after 1980, have learned the lessons of their Baby Boomer parents, born between 1946 and 1965. Never marry someone who makes less money than you do.
Since so many Millennials have suffered the divorce of their parents, their attitudes toward marriage are vastly more reasonable than the perverse attitudes of their Boomer parents (people my age). Millennials see the institution of marriage for what it is: A good contract under some circumstances and not so good under others. Married people who stay married certainly can accumulate wealth more easily due to economies of scale. In other words, two people who stay married can live less expensively than two people living individually. Married couples generally pay lower taxes, lower housing and furnishing costs, lower health care costs, lower food costs and so forth.
Still, Millennials have wisely rejected marriage for the most part. After all, marriage is no longer necessary to receive these benefits. Domestic partnership, once called “shacking up,” allows for the same benefits, excluding the tax benefits. And Millennials are more honest and vastly wiser than their parents regarding the progressively more vicious institution of marriage.
Having grown up under the auspices of so many self-deceived, pseudo-hippy, moralizing liberal parents, Millennial kids decided our fraud was simply intolerable. My generation called their parents rigid, called cops pigs and spit on vets coming back from Vietnam. And to be really honest, WE ALL INHALED, and we inhaled anything. I smoked every single spice in the spice cabinet including the Cayenne Pepper (really stupid), and then bananas (really dumb).
We Boomers also decided we were the moral compass for the world. We knew goodness best. We all went to Woodstock, at least in our hearts. We said we would live our lives for love and not money, and then somehow still went out and bought BMWs and Mercedes based on the sacrifices of the immoral people we maligned (our parents and then our kids). We worshiped limp religions that spouted naïve and untenable politics of peace. We recited by rote the prayer of the universal victimization of women. We decided that by making love and not war, racism would magically evaporate. And for the few holdouts among us that actually went to a church, God only showed up as a truly tripping Jesus we just knew must have reeked of weed. Dynamite!
Article comments
1 - John Bambenek
One problem, married people pay more taxes... ever hear of the "marriage tax penalty"?
2 - carmine
Hey John,
If you are lucky enough to pay the so-called marriage penalty you must both be making scads of money!!! Most Americans never have two incomes that add up to enough to require them to pay that tax. I WISH my wife and I made enough joined income to have to pay the marriage penalty tax!
3 - ChessWhore
The past tense of spit is spat. Too much weed?
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Carmine, from your other piece about young girls digging older guys, it appears that you think the ideal relationship is a young thing about 20 or so shacking up with a 45 or 50 year old. Speaking from the point of view of a 56 year old, that doesn't sound too bad - until the young thing decides she wants to get banged all night long (or longer) by some young stud who can keep it stiff all week long.
No wonder I see so many ads for Viagra, eh?
5 - carmine
And that RUVY is the most common error. Everyone is hot hot hot during the first 6 months-- 16, 56 or 86-- but only someone who you love and who loves you is great for the long haul. Good sex over time is not actually age dependent, but it certainly is love dependent. Viagra no doubt works for men, but also no doubt allows most men the ability to achieve a functional erection without anyone else really involved at all. So is that really the point of sex? A woman who wants only pure stud will tire of any man/boy after the first year anyway. Just like any man only interested in teen action will ultimately move to new material. Youth does not a slut make, nor age a schlump.