Nice, I first read him in The Atlantic before reading his book after as well. But even a household making net $150-200k can afford a lot more savings and better living than a net $75k household or even a net $100k household. Nurses marrying nurses (both post-bachelors) make a lot more than a cabinet repairman married to a barista (both n…
Nice, I first read him in The Atlantic before reading his book after as well. But even a household making net $150-200k can afford a lot more savings and better living than a net $75k household or even a net $100k household. Nurses marrying nurses (both post-bachelors) make a lot more than a cabinet repairman married to a barista (both non-college) for example.
That different tiers of income exist isn't really the problem so much as that the upper and even middle incomes tend to self-sort, accelerate wealth inequality generation-to-generation as a byproduct, and then spoil the meritocracy via making it more about wealth than actual merit. Equality of opportunity goes out the window and then you layer a self-reinforcing state of classism on top of that. That's kind of where we are as a "country" right now (I always say this "country" is really just an economic competition among individuals who like to still pretend they're a country).
There's some truth in it, but most couples I know in my neighborhood / income bracket, the woman has a college degree (nursing or teaching, usually) and the man doesn't because he can become an electrician or plumber and make a decent living without accumulating education debt.
The part that really resonates for me is that people like me send their kids to college, hoping they'll meet and marry other college-educated people rather than the local barfly / weed dealer. Oh, and the other part that resonates: there is real discrimination against the less intelligent. Some part of intelligence is genetic, so this is patently unfair. I don't know what to do about that, but excoriating people for voting based on the Wrestlemania-ification of politics doesn't seem to be an answer.
That is our situation-- sort of.. My husband has a college degree and he is also a journeyman electrician (IBEW). He did not have any college debt though. His father paid his tuition (state college). I met him at said college. I ended up dropping out but returned later and got my nursing degree. We only had one kid and he currently has his Master's degree and is applying for doctorate programs in his field (clinical psychology). As a young man he had a year of working blue collar construction and 4 years in the military so was able to make good decisions about his future after he was discharged. His fiance is also in his same field and finishing her Master's. She did grow up with a lot of poverty in a small deadend town so is very ambitious, hardworking and fiercely smart. My husband is not a big reader but my son and his fiance and I are. Our neighborhood is made up of homes that cost less than $150K, generally 1500-1700 sq. foot, 1970's stock suburban split/raised ranch or colonial style homes, good public school system. In fact, we don't have a private school in our district.
From the stats I've seen, women with degrees tend to marry men (or women) without degrees more than men with degrees do.
Check out the disparity between men with degrees doing the assortative mating versus women with degrees--particularly in the key 20's/30's marrying years. You'll notice trends that started showing up from the 1970's until now (college+ men do it wayyyy more than women):
Nice, I first read him in The Atlantic before reading his book after as well. But even a household making net $150-200k can afford a lot more savings and better living than a net $75k household or even a net $100k household. Nurses marrying nurses (both post-bachelors) make a lot more than a cabinet repairman married to a barista (both non-college) for example.
That different tiers of income exist isn't really the problem so much as that the upper and even middle incomes tend to self-sort, accelerate wealth inequality generation-to-generation as a byproduct, and then spoil the meritocracy via making it more about wealth than actual merit. Equality of opportunity goes out the window and then you layer a self-reinforcing state of classism on top of that. That's kind of where we are as a "country" right now (I always say this "country" is really just an economic competition among individuals who like to still pretend they're a country).
There's some truth in it, but most couples I know in my neighborhood / income bracket, the woman has a college degree (nursing or teaching, usually) and the man doesn't because he can become an electrician or plumber and make a decent living without accumulating education debt.
The part that really resonates for me is that people like me send their kids to college, hoping they'll meet and marry other college-educated people rather than the local barfly / weed dealer. Oh, and the other part that resonates: there is real discrimination against the less intelligent. Some part of intelligence is genetic, so this is patently unfair. I don't know what to do about that, but excoriating people for voting based on the Wrestlemania-ification of politics doesn't seem to be an answer.
That is our situation-- sort of.. My husband has a college degree and he is also a journeyman electrician (IBEW). He did not have any college debt though. His father paid his tuition (state college). I met him at said college. I ended up dropping out but returned later and got my nursing degree. We only had one kid and he currently has his Master's degree and is applying for doctorate programs in his field (clinical psychology). As a young man he had a year of working blue collar construction and 4 years in the military so was able to make good decisions about his future after he was discharged. His fiance is also in his same field and finishing her Master's. She did grow up with a lot of poverty in a small deadend town so is very ambitious, hardworking and fiercely smart. My husband is not a big reader but my son and his fiance and I are. Our neighborhood is made up of homes that cost less than $150K, generally 1500-1700 sq. foot, 1970's stock suburban split/raised ranch or colonial style homes, good public school system. In fact, we don't have a private school in our district.
From the stats I've seen, women with degrees tend to marry men (or women) without degrees more than men with degrees do.
Check out the disparity between men with degrees doing the assortative mating versus women with degrees--particularly in the key 20's/30's marrying years. You'll notice trends that started showing up from the 1970's until now (college+ men do it wayyyy more than women):
https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-gender-gap-in-marriages-between-college-educated-partners
There's also this data (in the PDF) from the National Bureau of Economic Research. See the graphs at the end:
https://www.nber.org/papers/w19829
Ooh, that first link is very interesting! I'll have to look at the graphs in the second link. Thanks for sharing.