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General Category => Discover Seattle! => Topic started by: purelife on Sep 12 07 10:08

Title: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: purelife on Sep 12 07 10:08
I heard on the news this morning that married couples are now at the minority according to Stats Can!  (omg, I am posting stats! LOL!)

  Anyways, they were saying that many people are either divorced, separated or single parents.  If I heard correctly, they said that 1 in 4 are raising kids alone.  

  I can believe that.  I know many people who have been divorced at least once in their lives.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 12 07 11:00
At least those stats aren't subjective purelife.  They are what they are.

  I've been divorced once. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/froehlich/c025.gif" border=0]
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Gopher on Sep 12 07 11:26
Well, at least I'm in the majority of something!
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: JJ on Sep 12 07 11:36
I now officially belong to a minority than, I'm married.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 12 07 04:07
haha I was going to post this. We talked about it in sociology class.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 12 07 04:16
[A href="vny!://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070912/census_main_070912/20070912?hub=TopStories"]vny!://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070912/census_main_070912/20070912?hub=TopStories[/A]
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Lise on Sep 13 07 01:08
I guess I'm in the minority. It's funny though to see the stats change over the years. A nuclear family isn't so common any more. I do wonder about these single parents bringing up their kids. How do they survive? It's so expensive these days that it takes two incomes just to get by.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 13 07 03:01
it takes two incomes just to pay rent. lol That's how the whole common law over marriage started. Couples have to move in together now, much to the dismay of religion folks. People move in together now not just for relationship purposes but economical ones.  
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: purelife on Sep 13 07 03:03
Or, continue living with parents to save money because most of our parents are done with paying mortgages. :))  
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 13 07 03:09
done with the mortgages? wow that's unheard of back home.  
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Lil Me on Sep 13 07 04:05
We can't write-off our mortgage interest on taxes here in Canada.
 So we want to pay it off as soon as we can.
   
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: 49er on Sep 13 07 05:33
Lil Me wrote:
We can't write-off our mortgage interest on taxes here in Canada.
So we want to pay it off as soon as we can.
 
 Buy a house, rent it to your parents and you rent your parents' house.  You and your parents get to write off all expenses on the house you each own since each becomes income property.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 13 07 05:47
You can't win for losing 49er.  The insurance for landlords is out of this world.....and renters insurance is equally crazy.  They would both be doubling up on that.

  I think what you get to claim is home improvements on a rental property.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: 49er on Sep 13 07 06:43
as an investment you get to claim.....

mortgage interest

insurance

depreciation

repairs

etc.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 13 07 06:52
Right.....thanks 49er.  I knew I was half speaking out of my hat.  Hubby handled all the stuff with our rental property so I knew very little of it.  (we sold it a while back.....good riddance)  

  *a rental property is only a good idea if the rent actually covers the mortgage payment.....lol
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: 49er on Sep 13 07 07:05
P.C. wrote:
*a rental property is only a good idea if the rent actually covers the mortgage payment.....lol[/DIV]
 No, you got to take into consideration money saved on taxes because of writeoffs and capital gains on the property...........but we are talking of rental between family members in this case
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 13 07 08:00
Oh I see where you're going.  Wouldn't they be subject to the same things ?
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Lil Me on Sep 13 07 09:17
 purelife wrote:
Anyways, they were saying that many people are either divorced, separated or single parents.  If I heard correctly, they said that 1 in 4 are raising kids alone.   --
 Back to the original topic, I can believe those statistics.  I think relationships suffer these days- our lifestyle is crazy.  People (in general) work like nuts to stay afloat, leaving little time for building a meaningful relationship with their significant other.
 
 I know lots of people out here in the 'burbs who have NO family time/couple time together.  Husband works nights, wife works days, they leave notes for each other on the fridge.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 13 07 09:20
yeah lil me. Especially the folks in the 'mcmansions'. I'd see the husband leave for work at 3:30am, 4am. Then you'd always see a for sale sign about a year later. The man must of found another wife. But I had friends who's dads would leave the home before sunrise and not get home until 9 or 10pm.  
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: 49er on Sep 13 07 11:01
Lil Me wrote:
.....  People (in general) work like nuts to stay afloat, leaving little time for building a meaningful relationship with their significant other.

I know lots of people out here in the 'burbs who have NO family time/couple time together.  Husband works nights, wife works days, they leave notes for each other on the fridge.


I disagree..........I say hardship and sacrfices of couples make the relationship stronger.  

I believe nowadays peolple are getting married without understanding the serious commitment of  marriage



 
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 13 07 11:19
I disagree..........I say hardship and sacrfices of couples make the relationship stronger.   I believe nowadays peolple are getting married without understanding the serious commitment of  marriage


There is something to be noted in that these statistics also mentioned the increase of common-law relationships.  My thoughts on that are that people are less willing to make that ultimate commitment.  So 'cohabitating' isn't declining.....commitment is declining.[/DIV]
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 13 07 11:42
marriage is something for religions.
marriage is the establishment
marriage is something that ties someone down changes them
marriage tends to be too structured you'll get a controlling
marriage ended bad the first time around or second or third etc.
In the end if you're not religious marriage is just a government piece of paper.

Thinking of excuses. And honestly I personally have the last view. If you're not religious, marriage loses the religious meanings. And here in the states why do homosexual couples want to get married besides the fact they want to be accepted? Benefits. You don't recieve the same amount of benefits as married folks do. So that's government related. So if you make the benefits the same for common law as married of course marriages are going to plummet.

Because honestly. If you love someone you don't need a government piece of paper that says I love so and so. Its sort of a liberitarian view point in a way, sort of like "I don't need somebody to tell me that I love a person."

 
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 14 07 06:31
Sorry SD....but what a load of crap.  
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: purelife on Sep 14 07 09:00
What the [beep] SD?  I agree with PC that what you said was a load of crap!

  Quit talking on behalf of ALL citizens of the USA.  And, if you haven't been married, divorced, live common-law, date, then really, SD, you don't know.  You don't know until you have experienced it for yourself.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 14 07 09:11
um where did I say I was talking about the US?
I have been on a date, a gf, and so on. P.C. said she believed couples didn't want to go the extra mile.
The last option is the most popular one in Europe because of what I mentioned. So its not a load of crap.
 
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 14 07 09:13
 you completely missed what I was saying. Why do you think Common law is the highest in Quebec?

"It really does have a lot to do with the fact that it's much more acceptable to live together before you get married and in a lot of cases, people don't bother getting married because thre really isn't any cultural imperative on them to do so," said Kathy Lynn, a certified family educator, speaking with CTV's Canada AM Wednesday.

 
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: purelife on Sep 14 07 09:15
I've hilighted where you mentioned "the states."  So, correct me if I'm wrong.

  Thinking of excuses. And honestly I personally have the last view. If you're not religious, marriage loses the religious meanings. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff40"]And here in the states why do homosexual couples want to get married besides the fact they want to be accepted? [/FONT]Benefits. You don't recieve the same amount of benefits as married folks do. So that's government related. So if you make the benefits the same for common law as married of course marriages are going to plummet.
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 14 07 09:19
 purelife wrote:
I've hilighted where you mentioned "the states."  So, correct me if I'm wrong.
 
[em]Thinking of excuses. And honestly I personally have the last view. If you're not religious, marriage loses the religious meanings. [font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 64);"]And here in the states why do homosexual couples want to get married besides the fact they want to be accepted? [/font]Benefits. You don't recieve the same amount of benefits as married folks do. So that's government related. So if you make the benefits the same for common law as married of course marriages are going to plummet.[/em]


that's a fact. They want to be treated like everyone else but they also want the benefits that regular heterosexual couples enjoy. It's acceptance and the wanting of government to recognize their love, then they want the equal amounts of benifts that heterosexual couples get.
 
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 14 07 09:24
marriage is something for religions.
marriage is the establishment
marriage is something that ties someone down changes them
marriage tends to be too structured you'll get a controlling
marriage ended bad the first time around or second or third etc.
In the end if you're not religious marriage is just a government piece of paper.



 

I said it was a load of crap, because none of the above is true for many.

  I'm not religious.

It has nothing to do with the establishment for me.

I'm not 'tied down', nor is my husband and there will always be changes married or not.  It's called growth.

I have no idea how you are connecting marriage and control.

I don't know what the next line even means.

I could care less about the piece of paper.  To me it is about the level of commitment.    
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 14 07 09:30
I'll repeat this again it goes with my just naming broad excuses why some people choose not to get married and stay common law.

"It really does have a lot to do with the fact that it's much more acceptable to live together before you get married and in a lot of cases, people don't bother getting married because thre really isn't any cultural imperative on them to do so," said Kathy Lynn, a certified family educator, speaking with CTV's Canada AM Wednesday.

cultural imperative:
they're not religious
nobody they know is married
There isn't any real benefit to get married
Something (cultural wise) has made them not want to get married.

In France most of the general public now gets civil unions. Due to law you have to go to the government first to get a civil union and then on to the church or whatever to get 'married'. If you are not religious you skip the second part.
 
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 14 07 09:45
[FONT color=#ffffff].[/FONT]    
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Sportsdude on Sep 14 07 09:49
 Quebecers lead world in common law relationships

excerpts

Sebastien Ross and Nancy Mercier didn't shun marriage when they decided to live together in their Montreal home 12 years ago.[/p] The option just wasn't on their radar.[/p] "The concept of choice is very pertinent because I don't see it as a choice to not marry,'' said Ross, who teaches computer skills to people trying to rejoin the workforce.[/p] "I just don't have the taste and I don't see what it gives me. I don't see any objective thing that it could change in my life. Not in personal relations with my partner, not with my family, not anyone. There's just no link.''[/p] Quebecers have steadily withdrawn from marriage since the Quiet Revolution took off in the 1960s. Quebecers refer to the previous decades as "the Great Darkness'' when the Catholic church, an English-speaking business elite and a near-totalitarian provincial government under Maurice Duplessis dominated every aspect of life for francophones.[/p] As new governments of the '60s and '70s kicked the church out of the education and health systems, Quebecers rejected clerics who forbade birth control and pushed them to stay on the farm, produce babies and avoid the evils of liberalism.[/p]----[/p]"The 1970s was clearly the first era that allowed it,'' said Marie-Michele, a retired academic who met her partner, Adrien, in 1972, after they were both divorced. (The couple did not want to use their surnames.)[/p] "Ten years earlier, it wasn't possible to live like that.''[/p] Marie-Michele remembers early discussions with family about her then-cutting-edge choice to live with a man without marriage.[/p] "But we've certainly never had any real conflict over it,'' she said.[/p] Adrien, a 66-year-old retired professor, says he likes to joke that "marriage is the main cause of divorce. So we decided not to marry to avoid divorce.''[/p] "For our circle, we are a couple, there is no difference,'' Adrien added. "It's Adrien and Marie-Michele, and has been for a long time. Being married or not, I don't know what would have been the difference.''[/p]------
For francophone Quebecers, marriage and Catholicism were inextricably linked. When they rejected religion, marriage went with it, according to sociologist Martin Meunier.[/p] "Quebecers are throwing out the baby with the bath water,'' Meunier said.[/p] "In other places, religion and marriage are two things. Here, the two were so closely tied we are liquidating marriage as we liquidate the Catholic religion.''[/p] Quebec has followed a similar trajectory to Sweden, the former world leader in common-law partnership. Sweden was also dominated for years by one religion, Lutheranism, and ditched religious allegiance for secular values.[/p] Celine Le Bourdais, a demographer and expert on families at McGill University, says the various protestant religions more common in the rest of Canada have been more adaptable than Catholicism, accepting contraception, divorce and less formal weddings. [/p] "The Catholic church, even now, is opposed to many things,'' Le Bourdais said.[/p] Meunier points to other religious rituals that are disappearing. In the 1990s, the children of baby boomers stopped baptizing their children in great numbers. [/p] "And now we have a complete meltdown where people are dying and aren't even getting a Catholic funeral,'' he said.
[/p]-------[/p]Now the pitfalls of the common law[/p]Le Bourdais said many Quebecers are unaware that common-law relationships have hidden pitfalls when it comes to dividing property in the case of a split up, or death. [/p] When a partner dies, property is automatically passed on to children rather than the spouse, for example. Common-law spouses also have fewer obligations to share property when they split, she said. [/p] "Mostly it's women getting the short end of it,'' Le Bourdais says.
[/p][a href="vny!://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070912/quebec_commonlaw_070912/20070912/"]vny!://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070912/quebec_commonlaw_070912/20070912/[/a]

   
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 14 07 09:51
[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" color=#ffffff].[/FONT]  
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: purelife on Sep 14 07 10:09
*sigh*

  Hey PC, hidden text?  I didn't see anything... ;)
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: P.C. on Sep 14 07 10:16
I was just checking to see if SD would argue with me even if I didn't say anything. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/c008.gif" border=0]
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: purelife on Sep 14 07 10:18
LOL, I see.  You're playing the "strong silent type" role.

  Oooo..I like role-playing. ;)
Title: Re: Married couples are the minority nowadays
Post by: Uhgg on Sep 14 07 10:20
I have been on a date, a gf, and so on.



Wow, our resident expert on marriage (and everything else) has been on a date. Being a googlemeister doesn't qualify you as experienced in the issues involved with a long term relationship, married or CL.

Who cares about these long posts you make from some talking head on tv, if you don't know what you're talking about, stfu.