Why Marriage Is Good For You
Why Marriage Is Good For You
   When Americans debate the value of marriage, most attention focuses on
   intact marriages are much more likely than other kids to slip into
   jail. On average, children reared outside of marriage are less
   Yes, marriage protects children. And yes, marriage therefore protects
   communal. But there is another case for marriage, equally significant,
   that you probably haven't heard. Marriage is a powerful creator and
   this is news. When it comes to adults, the case for lifelong marriage
   one side argues for personal liberation from marriage, the other urges
   framing the marriage debate solely in those terms obscures as much as
   it reveals. It misses the profound benefits that lasting marriage
   the consequences of marriage for adults with University of Chicago
   scholar Linda J. Waite for our new book, The Case for Marriage. What I
   How big a difference does marriage make? If David Letterman were to
   compile a Top Ten list for marriage, it might look something like this:
   TOP TEN REASONS WHY MARRIAGE IS GOOD FOR YOU:
   10. IT'S SAFER. Marriage lowers the risk that both men and women will
   lives. The power of marriage is particularly evident in late middle
   found an astonishingly large "marriage gap" in longevity: nine out of
   education, and income). For women, the protective benefits of marriage
   7. YOU WILL EARN MORE MONEY. Men today tend to think of marriage as a
   scientific literature suggests that for men especially, marriage is a
   a man stays married, the higher the marriage premium he receives.
   Wives' earnings also benefit from marriage, but they decline when
   motherhood enters the picture. Childless white wives get a marriage
   5. YOU'LL TAME HIS CHEATIN' HEART (HERS, TOO). Marriage increases
   cheat than wives. Marriage is also the only realistic promise of
   failure, depression, and relationship quality. Marriage may be riskier
   4. YOU WON'T GO BONKERS. Marriage is good for your mental health.
   have tracked individuals as they move toward marriage find that it is
   to make marriages that are happier than the one they left. "Divorce or
   and being happy is remarkably consistent across nations." Marriage
   adults from intact marriages to say they see either parent at least
   marriage as a social institution—a shared aspiration and a public,
   By increasing confidence that this partnership will last, marriage
   But because marriage is a partnership in the whole of life, backed up
   by family, community, and religious values, marriage can do what
   marriage may not feel gratifying at all). Married people are both
   and satisfying lives. Marriage is a transformative act, changing the
   70 percent of the unhappiest couples now describe their marriage as
   Just as good marriages go bad, bad marriages go good. And they have a
   marriage than one that sings the statistically dubious joys of divorce.