According to a new Pew Research Center report out today, 20 percent of American adults older than 25 have never married. That’s up from 9 percent in 1960. What’s going on? Partly it’s because the share of men aged 25 to 54 who are not working is at an all-time high. There are 65 employed men for every 100 women. Yet, 78 percent of never-married women say the most important quality they’re looking for is a prospective mate with a steady job. Now that women are doing better in the labor market than men, overall, women no longer have to settle for a marriage partner they don’t want or need. Do you think this is a good trend or bad?
Robert Reich asks a question that really makes me stop and think.
It makes me think about the huge income inequality we’re experiencing, the wealth gap, how the wealthy are getting wealthier on the backs of those who struggle, how many college kids are in debt up to their eyeballs, how many children don’t have parents around to nurture them and that may be because their parents are worn down by working two or three minimum wage jobs since children must eat. All these young people who are joining the Islamic terrorist organizations are said to be unemployed and see no chances of anything changing so they’ve taken ‘things’ into their own very young, very inexperienced, very angry desperate hands. Having nothing to do is a terrible thing. Having nothing to feel pride in is a terrible thing. Being desperate and young without direction or hope…
The question Mr. Reich asked got me to thinking and my thinking went waaaay off track!
I think there is another reason marriage is on the decline – the current tax code.
We do not reward marriage and especially not married couples that both work.
I am real tired of hearing my two adult children and their spouses tell me of their numerous friends and coworkers that are getting huge tax refund checks and other government benefits simply because they are not legally married.
On paper – if you’re single and you have some kids – and make less than the maximum income cap (last time I did tax returns this cap was $34,000/yr) – the more kids you had, the bigger the tax refund check. I saw both parents living together – but since they were not legally married – the one that made the less income would declare the kids on their income tax and would usually walk out with $4,000 to $6,000 tax refund checks.
BTW – my married adult kids and their spouses usually end up getting very little tax refund checks and/or owing more taxes – because their combined income pushes them into the higher tax bracket.
If these mega church preachers and televangelists don’t like the way our society is turning away from marriage – then stop demonizing the gays for wanting to get married – and start demonizing these politicians that want to keep our current tax code.
(from the link): In 1988, the typical American adult was 40 years old, white and married, with a high school diploma. If he was a man, he probably worked full time. If she was a woman, she probably didn’t.
Twenty-five years later, Americans are older, more diverse and more educated. We are less likely to be married and more likely to live alone. Work is divided more evenly between the sexes. One thing that hasn’t changed? The income of the median U.S. household is still just under $52,000.
The government’s release last week of income and poverty data for 2013 brought renewed attention to the apparent stagnation of the American middle class — not just since the financial crisis hit six years ago this month, but for much of the decade that preceded the crash. The report showed that the economic recovery has yet to translate into higher incomes for the typical American family. After adjusting for inflation, U.S. median household income is still 8 percent lower than it was before the recession, 9 percent lower than at its peak in 1999, and essentially unchanged since the end of the Reagan administration.
Today’s graphic brings up the issue of corporate welfare.
There is another issue about corporations that needs to be debated – should the US military be used to further the profits of corporations in these foreign countries?
I know of a young man who is married and has two young kids.
He did several tours in Afghanistan and the last one had him questioning exactly what the purpose was for him to be standing guard in front of some huge building that the US tax dollars just paid for and nobody was allowed to go inside unless specifically authorized.
Okay – but the people going into this building were not the usual military elites – they were dressed casually and some had corporate logos on their clothes.
Hmmmm…..corporate logos ….in the middle of a damn hell hole….in the middle of nowhere?
And this is because……..???
I suspect there are a lot of things WE the PEOPLE don’t know that goes on in these foreign countries to benefit corporations.
Is this just another way corporations have found to privatize their profits and socialize their costs?
I am still waiting to hear a reply from Congressman Mike Pompeo as to my questions….
I don’t understand how someone who just got 5 weeks off work cannot find the time to reply to my questions – that his generic form letter stated he wanted me to feel free to do…..
There is a good reason this Congress has the lowest abysmal ratings and why these folks are referred to as the ‘Do Nothing Congress’.
Ever since The National Republican Party sent in hit men to help Roberts things have gone downhill fast. Lots of negativity and big names that only the most right-wing nutjob would think have any credibility streaming in. All the people Perry, Jeb Bush or Palin might influence were already voting for Roberts the little ‘R’ anyway.
Pass the popcorn! I’d rather smell it than this stench of republican desperation that hangs in the air!
All the children and all the teachers from a nearby elementary school just walked past my house on their way to a nearby church. So many happy faces! Seems first the power went out at school, then they began smelling smoke so the entire school is evacuated to the church building while the school is searched. Erring on the side of safety!
Ugh. They even admit in the article that some things are too highly sensitive and it would be immoral to mock them. Rape falls in that category to me too so if you’re from the dinosaur age you have company!
(from the link): “The impact of all these restrictions is on poor women, because women who have means, if their state doesn’t provide access, another state does,” she said. “I think that the country will wake up and see that it can never go back to [abortions just] for women who can afford to travel to a neighboring state.”
Ginsburg, who is 81, also pushed back against calls for her to step down before President Barack Obama leaves office, which would allow him to appoint another liberal justice to the Supreme Court. Ginsburg said Senate Republicans would use a filibuster to block anyone Obama would pick.
“If I resign any time this year, he could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court,” Ginsburg said. “So anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided. As long as I can do the job full steam…. I think I’ll recognize when the time comes that I can’t any longer. But now I can.”
America has become the land of the perpetually offended. We are the forever outraged, we Americans.
It’s a bullshit first world problem that afflicts those who face no real difficulty in their day to day lives.
No difficulty? What’s that you say? Yeah, listen, when you have to lug the day’s water four miles from the nearest river on top of your head, get back to me.
This outrage, it’s a disease common to those who have enough to eat and a warm place to sleep and endless access to cheap goods and more TV channels than they could view even if they did nothing else. Yesterday, I stood in line behind an angry disaffected hipster at the coffee shop who spent ten minutes ordering a pumpkin spice chai tea latte with various ingredients, a drink that totalled – and I shit you not – $14.98. He held the line up for twenty minutes with his bullshit. Fifteen dollars for a cup of tea. Fifteen dollars for a cup of tea, folks. Twenty minutes of screwing around, and the pretentious little prick STILL wasn’t happy. And we all had to listen to him complain to the barista about his goddamned tea. I wanted to snatch him up by his nasty little goatee and smash his fucking head on the counter.
That’s what America has become, right there, a bunch of privileged snots mad because our chai tea latte isn’t hot enough.
It’s a symptom of the larger disease.
When the only thing you’ve got to be upset about is that two gay people want to get married, if that’s what offends you, you’re just being an asshole.
When the only thing you’ve got to be pissed off about is that other people worship a different god from yours, or go to a different church, or don’t believe in gods at all, then you’re just being an asshole.
When you’re outraged at the idea that some woman somewhere is getting an abortion, but meanwhile the thought of millions of children starving to death, or dying of preventable and treatable diseases, of suffering from poverty and neglect, or dying under the fall of our bombs doesn’t bother you, you’re just being an asshole.
When the only thing you’ve got to be outraged by is that you feel you’re being persecuted for your religious beliefs, or your race, or your gender, or your sexual orientation even though you’re a member of the overwhelming majority and you provably benefit from that fact every single day, then you’re just being an asshole.
When the worst thing in your day is that we’re not at war enough, that we aren’t bombing or invading or killing enough, if that’s your beef, then you are an asshole.
Other countries? Other places in the world? Their leaders are chopping off heads. Literally chopping off heads. Chopping off hands. Murdering. Raping. They’re gunning people down in the streets. They’re invading their neighbors. People are starving to death and they’ve got no choice but to drink out of the same river they shit in.
America? We’re outraged that the president waved at a Marine with a cup of coffee in his hand.
THAT’s what WE’ve got to be upset about.
Folks, let me clue in on something: BY CONSTITUTIONAL DEFINITION, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS A CIVILIAN.
He shouldn’t be saluting at all.
Reagan started this idiotic bullshit, no president before him raised a salute, not even Eisenhower.
The president is a civilian. There is no law, statute, regulation, or US Code that requires him to salute. Period. Nor should he. And in point of fact, the people who set up this country SPECIFICALLY didn’t want the president to be a member of the military – which is why we put civilians in charge of it.
The president shouldn’t be saluting in the first place. Period. A nod, a verbal acknowledgement to the military folks guarding him is sufficient.
Listen to me carefully: We don’t want the president, this one or any other, acting like they are a general. This is the United States of America, and it’s long past time for you to remember that.
A Brief History Of Silly Obama Scandals
“Latte Salute” Echoed In Previous Absurd Distractions
Conservatives Attacked Obama For Ordering A Burger With Mustard
Conservatives Attacked Obama Over A “Chintzy” Paper Clip
Conservatives Claimed Obama Was “Checking Out” A Young Woman At A G8 Photo Shoot
Conservatives Freaked Out Over White House Christmas Tree Decorations
Conservative “Shock, Outrage” Over Obama Feet on Desk
And, of course, there’s playing golf, wearing a tan suit, Mom jeans, arugula-gate, Orange Juice-gate, and the most obvious scandal, that President Obama is black. Details of each of these ‘scandals’ and even more at the link —
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
Robert Reich asks —
According to a new Pew Research Center report out today, 20 percent of American adults older than 25 have never married. That’s up from 9 percent in 1960. What’s going on? Partly it’s because the share of men aged 25 to 54 who are not working is at an all-time high. There are 65 employed men for every 100 women. Yet, 78 percent of never-married women say the most important quality they’re looking for is a prospective mate with a steady job. Now that women are doing better in the labor market than men, overall, women no longer have to settle for a marriage partner they don’t want or need. Do you think this is a good trend or bad?
Robert Reich asks a question that really makes me stop and think.
It makes me think about the huge income inequality we’re experiencing, the wealth gap, how the wealthy are getting wealthier on the backs of those who struggle, how many college kids are in debt up to their eyeballs, how many children don’t have parents around to nurture them and that may be because their parents are worn down by working two or three minimum wage jobs since children must eat. All these young people who are joining the Islamic terrorist organizations are said to be unemployed and see no chances of anything changing so they’ve taken ‘things’ into their own very young, very inexperienced, very angry desperate hands. Having nothing to do is a terrible thing. Having nothing to feel pride in is a terrible thing. Being desperate and young without direction or hope…
The question Mr. Reich asked got me to thinking and my thinking went waaaay off track!
I think there is another reason marriage is on the decline – the current tax code.
We do not reward marriage and especially not married couples that both work.
I am real tired of hearing my two adult children and their spouses tell me of their numerous friends and coworkers that are getting huge tax refund checks and other government benefits simply because they are not legally married.
On paper – if you’re single and you have some kids – and make less than the maximum income cap (last time I did tax returns this cap was $34,000/yr) – the more kids you had, the bigger the tax refund check. I saw both parents living together – but since they were not legally married – the one that made the less income would declare the kids on their income tax and would usually walk out with $4,000 to $6,000 tax refund checks.
That is a lot of money……
BTW – my married adult kids and their spouses usually end up getting very little tax refund checks and/or owing more taxes – because their combined income pushes them into the higher tax bracket.
If these mega church preachers and televangelists don’t like the way our society is turning away from marriage – then stop demonizing the gays for wanting to get married – and start demonizing these politicians that want to keep our current tax code.
(from the link): In 1988, the typical American adult was 40 years old, white and married, with a high school diploma. If he was a man, he probably worked full time. If she was a woman, she probably didn’t.
Twenty-five years later, Americans are older, more diverse and more educated. We are less likely to be married and more likely to live alone. Work is divided more evenly between the sexes. One thing that hasn’t changed? The income of the median U.S. household is still just under $52,000.
The government’s release last week of income and poverty data for 2013 brought renewed attention to the apparent stagnation of the American middle class — not just since the financial crisis hit six years ago this month, but for much of the decade that preceded the crash. The report showed that the economic recovery has yet to translate into higher incomes for the typical American family. After adjusting for inflation, U.S. median household income is still 8 percent lower than it was before the recession, 9 percent lower than at its peak in 1999, and essentially unchanged since the end of the Reagan administration.
Continue reading…
The American Middle Class Hasn’t Gotten A Raise In 15 Years
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-american-middle-class-hasnt-gotten-a-raise-in-15-years/
But…but…St. Ronnie promised everyone that his trickle down economics would make everyone happier – and wealthier..
Today’s graphic brings up the issue of corporate welfare.
There is another issue about corporations that needs to be debated – should the US military be used to further the profits of corporations in these foreign countries?
I know of a young man who is married and has two young kids.
He did several tours in Afghanistan and the last one had him questioning exactly what the purpose was for him to be standing guard in front of some huge building that the US tax dollars just paid for and nobody was allowed to go inside unless specifically authorized.
Okay – but the people going into this building were not the usual military elites – they were dressed casually and some had corporate logos on their clothes.
Hmmmm…..corporate logos ….in the middle of a damn hell hole….in the middle of nowhere?
And this is because……..???
I suspect there are a lot of things WE the PEOPLE don’t know that goes on in these foreign countries to benefit corporations.
Is this just another way corporations have found to privatize their profits and socialize their costs?
Just to keep you informed…..
I am still waiting to hear a reply from Congressman Mike Pompeo as to my questions….
I don’t understand how someone who just got 5 weeks off work cannot find the time to reply to my questions – that his generic form letter stated he wanted me to feel free to do…..
There is a good reason this Congress has the lowest abysmal ratings and why these folks are referred to as the ‘Do Nothing Congress’.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gop-stars-descend-kansas
—
Wow – the Republican Party is sending in their big guns to help Pat Roberts.
Sarah Palin is coming in to save ol’ Pat Roberts political butt in this race?
But – today Brownback and Rick Perry are set to be in Wichita.
This must be why I have a such a pounding headache – I do tend to sense when bad things are about to happen. LOL
Ever since The National Republican Party sent in hit men to help Roberts things have gone downhill fast. Lots of negativity and big names that only the most right-wing nutjob would think have any credibility streaming in. All the people Perry, Jeb Bush or Palin might influence were already voting for
Robertsthe little ‘R’ anyway.Pass the popcorn! I’d rather smell it than this stench of republican desperation that hangs in the air!
This grand slam of Republican heavyweights coming in to sing the praises of Pat Roberts might just backfire.
The rating of Congress is at an all time low and the Republicans hard turn to the Far Right Fantasyland had a lot to do with the ratings plunge…
All the children and all the teachers from a nearby elementary school just walked past my house on their way to a nearby church. So many happy faces! Seems first the power went out at school, then they began smelling smoke so the entire school is evacuated to the church building while the school is searched. Erring on the side of safety!
The new Texas school books list Moses as a founding father! Let’s just file this under “just when you think things can’t get more stupid.”
Right, left blast new Texas textbooks
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20140916-right-left-blast-new-texas-textbooks.ece
http://preview.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/rape-joke-on-fox-cartoons-draws-attention/ar-BB5v7qy
——-
This is troubling to me…
Since when is the issue of rape anything to be joked about?
What is more troubling is the cavalier attitude some of these folks have that this punch line is viewed as funny when taken in context.
WTH…..
There is NEVER any time – in context or out of context – that rape is a funny punch line.
Is it just me that feels this way and I am truly now the old lady from the Dinosaur Age?
Ugh. They even admit in the article that some things are too highly sensitive and it would be immoral to mock them. Rape falls in that category to me too so if you’re from the dinosaur age you have company!
(from the link): “The impact of all these restrictions is on poor women, because women who have means, if their state doesn’t provide access, another state does,” she said. “I think that the country will wake up and see that it can never go back to [abortions just] for women who can afford to travel to a neighboring state.”
Ginsburg, who is 81, also pushed back against calls for her to step down before President Barack Obama leaves office, which would allow him to appoint another liberal justice to the Supreme Court. Ginsburg said Senate Republicans would use a filibuster to block anyone Obama would pick.
“If I resign any time this year, he could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court,” Ginsburg said. “So anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided. As long as I can do the job full steam…. I think I’ll recognize when the time comes that I can’t any longer. But now I can.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Thinks This Justice Is Responsible For Halting Access To Abortions
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/23/ruth-bader-ginsburg-abortion_n_5870402.html?edlinkushpmg00000061
As Jim Wright, Stonekettle Station, said:
A Brief History Of Silly Obama Scandals
“Latte Salute” Echoed In Previous Absurd Distractions
Conservatives Attacked Obama For Ordering A Burger With Mustard
Conservatives Attacked Obama Over A “Chintzy” Paper Clip
Conservatives Claimed Obama Was “Checking Out” A Young Woman At A G8 Photo Shoot
Conservatives Freaked Out Over White House Christmas Tree Decorations
Conservative “Shock, Outrage” Over Obama Feet on Desk
And, of course, there’s playing golf, wearing a tan suit, Mom jeans, arugula-gate, Orange Juice-gate, and the most obvious scandal, that President Obama is black. Details of each of these ‘scandals’ and even more at the link —
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/09/24/a-brief-history-of-silly-obama-scandals/200872