[extropy-chat] FWD (SK) Re: Question about divorce stats

[Terry W. Colvin]

--- Anton Mates wrote:

> Counting only people whose marital history I know completely, about a 
> third of the marriages I know ended in divorce.  However, most of said 
> people are in their thirties or younger, upper-middle class and from 
> the SF area, so that's probably skewed low.

My experience must be totally abnormal, then.  I look
at my neighborhood, about fifty families of varied
background, ethnicity, and even orientation; all are,
however, comfortable middle-class types.  Most moved
into the houses new, 20-25 years ago, and are between
45 and 65. there are a few younger, and a few older.
Almost all are college grads, a good percentage have
advanced academic or professional degrees. Almost all
have or have had both spouses working, and almost all
have or have had children.

We all know each other better than we want to.

Two of the families were second marriages when they
moved in.  Since that time, three more have divorced
(two have lost spouses to death).  One of the divorced
people has remarried (one of the widowed ones has).

And that's all. Everybody else--not counting the ones
who have moved away and lost touch--not many--is still
married to the same person he/she started out with.
Nobody has been divorced more than once.

That's a 10% lifetime rate for that population as I
see it.

Families.  In my husband's family, counting to the
cousin level, there has been one divorce.  In mine,
there has never been even one (there was an aunt that
nobody ever would talk about, and I don't know
anything about her, except that *she would order beer
in restaurants in front of everybody*).

Suddenly, I feel as if I'm living in a dream world,
isolated from harsh reality.  Wow.

Eleanor 



-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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