YES: men experience all kinds of benefits from being married regardless of the quality of the marriage, but women only do in good marriages! So fellas, when you give that toast at your wedding and say your new wife "makes you better" -- you are only telling the bald truth!

So... Women have more incentive to get divorced. 

Depends how you write the pre-nup...

Now now Rob, that is an antiquated view of marriage especially in the class where a pre-nup would even make sense. One of my smartest buddies once told me that for women with high earning potential, it's hard to stay married because the cost-benefit of a husband just isn't that great as the marginal value of a dollar decreases! 

Haha--I was just a Riff'n off Rifkin's comment (maybe he'll call me...ahem.)

As to riffing on your buddies' business metaphor as aphorism, maybe it's true...  it's gender stereotypical that women acquire men on hopes of what they can change and men acquire women on hopes that they never will...

...though everyone has a different Mergers and Acquisition story.

well, we are at the forefront of this becoming common knowledge.  this is what happens when the tables turn.  darn that feminism!  :)

i think the problem is that, for many men, the expectations of a traditional housewife remain.  she may be earning money with a career of her own, but it hasn't really changed his expectations of all her domestic duties.  if we were to put a dollar value on her duties, we'd see she's contributing an awful lot.

heck, who wouldn't want a traditional wife to take care of all domestic duties?  i want one!  luxury!

In all the wealthy families I know, they pay for someone to do domestic duties.

So I guess we should start calling that function what it really is: A job.

I'm still thinking about the fact that marriage has been constructed in a way that men always win.

That is the definition of a rigged system, and makes me question whether such a system should exist.

you're not alone, adam!  :)

i think the system is crumbling quickly.  50% divorce rate should be proof enough.

50% of marriages end in divorce. The other 50% end in... Death?!

hahaha!  i suppose.  whether that's caused by the marriage is not clear.

I think the other 50% end in Series B...

To be fair, divorce is now HIGHLY correlated to social class -- which was not the case in the past. If you went to graduate school your friends are actually far less likely to divorce than that 50% number would indicate... if you went to prison your friends are far more likely.

ha!  geege has a stash called "don't get me started."  touche!

It's one of her best stashes.