Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Single Men Make Less Than Married Men Do

I happened upon this chart at the St. Louis Fed of all places whenst doing research for something else.



Throughout the whole report they forgot to make one major adjustment or distinction;

A married man's wages must be divvied up amongst a family.

A single man gets to keep it all himself...of course minus the taxes we pay to subsidize all the married mens' children through school.

Still, that Pontiac Solstice is better looking than any brand new newborn baby I've seen. And more affordable.

Though, a rather cynical FEMALE friend of mine suggested another theory;

"Married men know how to obey. You single boys just go and do whatever you want and goof around!"

Heh heh.

Yes.

Yes we do.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't put a price on having regular 'fun'. Married men still end up with more.

Anonymous said...

Cappie: Saving all these posts, just in case about five years from now I see you pushing a baby stroller through the Mall of America while the significant other shops for shoes.

Unknown said...

Precisely, married men know how to obey and are a more stable investment. A bachelor is free to do whatever they please. Divorced men are also likely to have additional financial obligations (alimony, etc) which helps keep them in place.

Anonymous said...

Imagine these days if a man, said to a single girl: "married women know how to obey...you single gals are always gallivanting around"


-wipes tears from eyes- Sniff. Snort.

Captain Capitalism said...

Anon 1 - Yeah, right. Even if I accept the premise married men have more fun, half of them end up in divorce. I'll stick with the sure thing.

Anon 2 - HAR!!!! Should I be pushing a stroller (or one of those god awful front baby back packs that make men look pregnant) I will be the first to post the picture and admit hypocrisy.

Chip - Correct

Anon 3 - I'd image you would have shone some light on yet another double stand we men get to live by.

Anonymous said...

I think a married man will stay at a job he dislikes if it pays well, where a single guy will seek out more enjoyable work, even when the pay is not as good. If I were single, I might be a bartender or go self employed, but I have obligations to support my family and don't want to lose the relative security of my job.

she said: said...

What is this? The 1970's?

Married men are more likely to not be impulsive. That isn't the same as not having fun. It is a different world Capn'. Read - more likely to have a career focus, and less likely to not jump around jobs. It is the same argument as why men make more than women. Hint - men tend to spend more time in the job market.

P.S. The Solstice isn't so affordable when you realize you need to actually need buy two cars. You can't even fit a golf club or two into the trunk. Or in your case - climbing gear.

Unless you are eating out every night, you'd be lucky to get a six pack of beer and a microwave dinner into the passenger seat.

http://snarkolepsy.blogspot.com/2006/12/what-we-loved-hated-and-wished-we-loved.html

Anonymous said...

Seriously, this dovetails with the feminist article of faith that women make less than men.

Actually if you study the statistics, it is that women make less than MARRIED men...for the same reason that single men make less than MARRIED men.

Why?

Part of it is that a married man with a stay at home wife has more time to devote to his job. While a bachelor doesn't have to leave work to pick up the kids or go to little league, he does have to do all his own shopping, bill paying, insurance shopping, take the car in for repair, cooking, cleaning, and laundry ect.

Mostly though a man with a stay at home wife finds it easier to do the "Schmoozing" you, dear Cap so violently detest, but that we both know pays off. How can a bachelor ever have the boss and his wife over to dinner?

A stay at home wife is a great asset to a career building man. She can be an invaluable aid in social networking as one climbs the corporate ladder, and as you recently said "who you know is half the battle". Lets say you get passed over for partner at Dewey Chetam and Howe. If your wife is in the Junior League with the wives of all the Senior Partners from Remmington, Colt and Sixgun, and Beldini, Lambert, and Locke, it's not quite the career blow it would be if you were a single bachelor.

Yes liberated career woman of the 60s/70s/80s/90s/whatever can also do these things, but if she is holding down her own career and kids, it won't get done as often or as well.

Wives help you network, networking helps your career, and that helps your bottom line.

Then you have a heart attack and they marry the pool boy.

Anonymous said...

No matter what everyone else has said, I'd still like a Solstice or a Sky, but the Mrs. says it's a midlife crisis.

It's not a crisis, I'm just tired of driving el cheapo boring underpowered four door sedans that aren't fun to drive.

Jeeze, I'v been driving econoboxes for 40 years. Why can't I have a car that's actually fun to drive?

It's that damn Female Fun Limitation Factor - the dreaded FFLF!

Now, maybe I hit her up for a road bike, and maybe she'll back off and let me have the car.

Captain Capitalism said...

Ah yes, the dreaded FFLF.

You listen to GL yesterday?

she said: said...

"No matter what everyone else has said, I'd still like a Solstice or a Sky, but the Mrs. says it's a midlife crisis."

Oh no. I didn't say that.

I was more leaning towards mocking the stereotypical image of marriage the Captn' often posts about. And what seems "fun" in your 20's, isn't as "fun" in your late 30's. Despite what your bro-himes try to convince you of.

When your view is that your going to find a girl who will want to marry and chop your balls off. Further making you suffer with children - is sort of a dated view.

There are wives who think you should have the Solstice. It is a very fine car after all.

It is only a midlife crisis if you've been conning your wife into thinking you never wanted those things to begin with. Then at 40 drop a sports car into her lap.

Take control men. Stop making it an us vs. them thing.

Captain Capitalism said...

I'm not stereotyping, I'm just seeing what happened to my friends. And especially now that I'm entering the 30's, this new fad called "divorce" is certainly making the single life look great. I have no delusions about single life being like when you're 25, at 32 it's better. You don't care about dating, you smoke cigars, you work as much as you want, eat out all the time, sleep in till whenever you want, and I can (as I did last week) just decide at the drop of a hat to leave town and do something.

No planning,

No asking

No considering what other people want to do.

Pure and total freedom as the fore fathers intended it.

Anonymous said...

I think it might be because of the whole double income thing. By and large, being married is cheaper than being single, because you instead of two house payments, there is only one, you cook together more and eat out less, etc, all on two incomes. Of course, I'm lookin at this all from a double income, no kids point of view. My opinion might change once kids come into the picture.

Junam

CMY said...

Let's face it- a good portion of guys who wander into marriage between the ages of 20-27 usually haven't figured out what they like, who they are, or what they want to do. It's just a mad rush to find the first girl who will give you the time of day.

I got that out of my system early and married a basket case (read: porn star) at 22, only to go through hell for over a year and find out some very expensive life lessons in the process.

I turned 30 last year and have been dating the same girl for almost six years now. We now live together, but keep separate finances (aside from trips or vacations) and give each other a wide berth on outside activities.

Having seen the other side of the coin, I know I wouldn't be in this position unless I saw all of the pitfalls and worked with her to construct this relationship in a way that wouldn't cause constant chafing (for either of us). Joe Average has no such roadmap, or he simply refuses to learn from his previous mistakes.

Marriage has come up, but only for the tax benefits and the fact that her mother offered a sizeable check (a Soltice or two) if we eloped and skipped the ridiculous marriage ceremony and reception.

We're still on the fence about it.