Actually, Maybe You Can Buy Love
An economist can assign a much different dollar value for men & women for marriage.
The Beatles declared that you "Can't Buy Me Love" (as did Patrick Dempsey) but that doesn't mean you can't put a price on it. According to Paul Frijters of Australia's Queensland University (per the Sidney Morning Herald) marriage is worth approximately A$32,000 (that's $30,000 in US dollars) in happiness to a man, and A$16,000/$15,000 to a lady. Read : Can You Buy Happiness?
Essentially, the act of getting married makes a man equally happy as getting lump payments equaling $30,000. The analysis goes on to mention that men feel like divorce is like losing A$110,000 of happiness (and probably actual dollars) for men while ladies feel like they're losing A$9,000. The last one makes sense, as guys are statistically way more likely to commit suicide after a divorce than ladies. Please check out the SMH for more of the calculations, very interesting stuff. Read: The Price of Love
While I have no experience with being married, divorced or widowed, I am familiar with putting monetary value on love and relationships. Let me preface this by saying I was a late bloomer and at 30 am just now growing into my nose. Young men without chins and with small ears are seldom attractive to women, even if we'll do anything they say. On one hand, we place the women on a pedestal and on the other, we objectify women because we don't know any better.
As a young man I once put the price of having sex at $100. I never told any of my lady friends because I was convinced that a lady on a date with me would likely feel obligated to recriprocate somehow after a threshold of exactly one Benjamin was achieved. Even though I was too demure to mention my triple digit rule to any of my dates, I was hanging out with women who were too classy for something like that. In fact, given my $100 theory, one of my amigos liked to point out that I'd paid for far more sex than I will likely ever have.
Anyone out there assign a dollar amount to anything? Do you find it crass or appealing?
Discussion
why would any man with a brain ever get married. you can get the exact same thing being single that you can being married without having to give up half your income. this shows you how: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21733512/Principles-101
also if you need reasons not to get married, here they are: http://manhood101.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=620
Any man with a brain will get married. Why?
Married men are happier than single men.
Contrary to all the jokes we make, married men have more sex, including more oral sex. They are happier with their sex lives.
Married men are richer than single men. There earn more money and have more assets. This has been carefully studied by social scientists and it's not just that the men start out richer. They gain more income and assets after they get married than if they don't.
Married men are healthier and they live longer than single men. Again, social scientists argue that this is because they got married, not the reason they got married.
Tommy,
you might have answered your own question in regard to women if 9 grand is what they're losing, I thought 9,000/12months=750 a month 750/8..what would be considered a decent amount of married sex a month...which equals $93.75
Now you know what to do next time a chick spends a Big Ben on you...
Book Mama,
According to my husband's bestfriend, it depends on what country you are getting your help from...yeah...I told him to let his fantasies roll...coincidentally..depending on what you want to eat, live in and dress like..we're looking at a number closer and closer to that 110 that the men miss after divorce.
Once a man commits to marriage, they do value marriage more. Men are healthier and happier while married and suffer more after divorce. Men also tend to remarry much faster than women. I've always wondered if that's because they've got someone to take such good care of them?
You can't buy love, but you sure can buy:
A Cook
A Maid
A Laundress
Child Care-with child transportation
Entertainment
Hem..what's that sound like..
This is the big ordeal..some friends and I have done the math..including over-time and tax write-offs....
Man..you guys would be so broke...hahaha..
I think it's crass, but the study sure is interesting.
So do men value marriage more highly than women do? Are they more unhappy when they get divorced? Or do women care less about money so that it takes more money to make a woman happy?
I prefer to think men just really want marriage, although so many of them seem to want to put it off forever.
