The Great Marriage Divide

by Maureen

According to the Boston Globe, marriage, of all things, may be the great economic divide between the haves and the have-nots.

Says the piece:
“But unlike market cycles that come and go, the fragmentation of the family is a decades-long disaster that has done as much to further economic inequality and create two Americas as anything.”

What does this mean?

Turns out, the well-educated tend to seek and marry other well-educated partners. No big surprise there. But Kay S. Hymowitz, author of Marriage and Caste in America, believes that marriage now poses an even larger social divide than race.

Sociologists call “assortative mating.” MBAs marry MBAs; nobody is interested in rescuing Cinderella any more.

“Inequality will continue to accelerate and society will continue to fragment in the absence of a major reversal in young married couple formation,” adds Northeastern University economist Andrew Sum.

Now, this is nothing that one person could change, or should try to, for that matter. It’s just kind of fascinating that the small actions we take, such as choosing one person over another, can have a large impact on the success of the society in which we live. Talk about a ripple effect.