The October Thing #1 – August 25, 2011


Love and Marriage and a Baby Carriage

“What’s love got to do with it?” sings Tina Turner, calling it a “sweet old-fashioned notion.” The world seems to agree; marriage rates are now down (often dramatically) and divorce rates up in most countries. The only areas where “traditional” marriage rates prevail are some Latin American countries and some Islamic countries. Basically, education and freedom-from-religion are hitting marriage hard, with economic-freedom-from-a-husband and internet dating also playing a huge role. There’s some evidence that sex toys also play a role in the more developed countries. The other shoe hasn’t dropped yet; China and India have just begun to see the steep marriage-drop that countries like Japan (Asian) and Mauritius (Indian) have experienced.

Birth rates are following marriage rates downward, but there are differences; single Swedish women typically choose to have an out-of-wedlock child, single American women have one by default, single Asian women usually aren’t having babies, using a combination of celibacy, birth control, and abortion. Educated women who do marry have one or zero children; over half of Masters’ degrees in South Korea are now earned by women. Such “Golden Misses” are very choosy, marrying late, marrying only foreigners or marrying not at all. Since that leaves a lot of unhappy bachelors, the bachelors are seeking foreign women; in Taiwan about 1/4 of marriages involve foreign women.

Will all this continue? Probably, since birth rates now drop due to both social change and financial distress. Both are likely in the future. Of course, the planet already has 7 billion people but can only afford about 2 billion. Comments?