Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Marriage Stats: Just Don't?


In "Marriage: Just Don’t", Paul Elam gives a pretty bleak, though somewhat darkly hilarious outlook around the institution of (American) marriages.

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It isn’t relationship dynamics that will get you—it’s math. And the numbers are scary.

Now, if an investment broker told you he had a deal in which you could invest, and there was more than a 50 percent chance that you would be wiped out and spend most of the rest of your life paying the margin call or going to jail, how much would you invest?

First, and most of you know this, more than half of all marriages end in divorce, not counting the ones that end in murder, suicide, and psychiatric facilities. ...Many failed marriages don’t end up as divorces.

One angry spouse + 1 lawyer + 1 family court = 1 impoverished man living in a studio apartment and driving a 1981 Buick Skylark.

Numbers are sometimes ugly, but they don’t lie.

But wait, you say, I can change that equation with a prenup!
Yes, you can. Here are the factor-weighed results.

One angry spouse + 1 lawyer + 1 family court + 1 prenuptial agreement = 1 impoverished man living in a studio apartment and driving a 1982 Buick Skylark.

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It's usually a bad idea to expect things in life to happen as we like. The above content forces folks to address reality, and take into consideration of not just 1st, but also 2nd, 3rd order consequences for all our decisions. Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio has said " ...an accurate understanding of reality is the essential foundation for producing good outcomes."

0 Reflections: