Comment Re:Good (Score 4, Insightful) 106
Pointing out that the risk is shared by both parties does not, in fact, lower the risk nor the stakes. People will shun a high-risk-high-stakes investment, regardless of whether those risks are fair.
The "traditional marriage," where one member (typically the woman) gives up her career in order to be a stay-at-home spouse, is largely a thing of the past. Most families simply can't afford that arrangement anymore. In this economic landscape, it is almost selfish to want to be a stay-at-home-spouse. The financial burden that such a person imposes is significant, and is multiplied by the even greater financial burden imposed when the divorce happens.
If wealthy men want to seek out traditional women to offer livelong providence (even after divorce), more power to them. It's their money, after all. In a world with a 50% divorce rate, it seems a significant waste to me, but really that's just an issue of values.
The bottom line, though, is that marriage rates won't go up in the current climate. No amount of blaming-and-shaming will have any impact. Maybe that's ok. But people who would like to see the marriage rates rise are going to have to do better than say "you need to learn better." Such a tactic utterly fails to address the reasons motivating the current trends.