by John Young
Wages have been stagnant for a decade, and though fewer European-Americans than ever recorded are marrying, tough economic times are inducing more of those who are already married to stay that way.
According to an article by Drs. Charles and Elizabeth Schmitz, during good economic times, we have been looking at marriage in a very consumeristic way:
The sad fact of the matter is this – we live in a “disposable society.” We live in a world where it is so easy to throw something away – to dispose of something that has limited value to us.
In many ways, society does, by actions and words, encourage challenged marriages to do the same. Society encourages many of those who are married and struggling, to throw their marriage away like some commodity that has grown stale – like something that has outlived its usefulness. Why do we do that? Isn’t a marriage worth preserving?
But during a hard economy, many are rethinking an impending divorce:
The simple truth is this – couples who have been thinking about divorce suddenly rethink that position in tough economic times. Why, you say?
Here’s the reality. In tough times it is hard to find another home, hard to maintain a new home, condo, or apartment. It is hard to shuttle the kids back and forth between two domiciles. It is, without a doubt, nearly impossible in tough economic times to maintain the same standard of living when that standard is divided between two places! Not the least of the issues are the overwhelming legal fees required to secure a divorce.
Often times, one of the results of tough economic times is that the couples who were contemplating divorce are suddenly faced with another choice – let’s try to stay together – let’s try to make it work. And that’s actually very good news.
Of course, not everyone takes such a rosy view of things.There are those whose world view or personal stake have them see things differently. Rather than seeing the tough times as providing an incentive for people to salvage marriages that can and should be saved, some law firms that earn their money through divorce see the economy as “masking” bad marriages.
Though many law offices see these divorces as merely being delayed until the economy improves, the simple fact is that if you examine data from the Census Bureau, the divorce rate rises and falls with the economy, but doesn’t experience a dramatic rise as the economy improves. Thus, there is no “demand” that is being held up.
What this tells us is that most divorces are not needed. But we know that already if we are being honest with ourselves, don’t we?