Why Men Say Marriage Is a Bad Idea (The Data)

Connect With Kait: https://kaitwillett.com/
Support My Work: https://buymeacoffee.com/kaitwillett

Is marriage still worth it for men? I went through the wage studies, fifty years of happiness surveys, and a mortality study of almost 7.9 million people to answer it with real numbers instead of picking a side. I start with a Harvard sociologist who predicted rising unhappiness with marriage back in 1956 and grade how right he actually was.

Then I make the strongest case against marriage for men, from the collapse in male remarriage to the wage premium that disappears in the newer data, and I throw out two famous numbers that get quoted constantly but don’t hold up. After that I go through the evidence my own comment section won’t like: what being unmarried costs men in health, happiness and years of life.

What’s left is the one part of marriage that still pays and the one part no contract can protect. This is my honest answer to whether that trade is still worth it, and what it would take to make it worth it for the next man.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:42 A 1954 Prediction
3:14 Grading The Prediction
6:55 The Case Against Marriage
9:03 The Money Myth
13:04 The Price Of Sex
18:13 It Isn’t Free
29:12 Two Numbers I Won’t Use
31:15 What Marriage Still Gives Men
37:48 The Answer
38:44 To The Men Watching
39:16 To The Women Watching

Share on: