Saw this on the front page of Thursday's USA Today, in the "Snapshots" section, and I thought of you:

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Average number of people holding more than one job in 2005~

Never Married = 1.3 Million
Widowed, Divorced or Separated = 2.1 Million
Married = 4.1 Million
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Somehow I thought the divorced would be higher, due to one person being responsible for the whole household, OR paying support to the other.

Yo WT,


That's an INTERESTING statistic. And if it's true, it brings to the forefront just how integral FINANCES are in a marriage. But the followup question would be where does all this financial pressure come from?

Is it pressure produced by the husband? Has he decided to go into a PROVIDER FRENZY, sacraficing ALL his spare time in pursuit of financial security in order to take care of his wife and family? If this is the case, I wonder how this man's wife and family would suffer from his self-imposed "alruistic" absentee-ism?

Is it pressure produced by the wife's need for financial security, to keep up with the JONES, and to always have the FINER things for her and the kids? IF this is the case, I wonder how this woman's husband and family would suffer from her endless quest for an ever-higher status?

Or, is it pressure produced by BOTH the husband's AND wife's CHOICE to place FINANCIAL SECURITY over all else in their hierchy of marriage goals? And if so, I wonder what kind of marriage would these people have 5, 10, 20 years in the future?

Would they STILL want each other after they've accomplished these goals? Hell, would they even KNOW each other due to spending such an inordinant amount of time APART?

Are these married couples in debt? Or are they working so much JUST to avoid each other?

So MANY questions...Does anybody HERE have any answers?

The only thing I DO know is that if married people really do NEED to work so many extra jobs, I doubt if it is REALLY due to lack of finances.

Something DEEPER has to be going on...



Peace...one day.

Maybe the guys are just happy to be out of the house...

Considering there are over 300 million people in the US, those statistics seem pretty useless for drawing any conclusions.

azanon said:

Considering there are over 300 million people in the US, those statistics seem pretty useless for drawing any conclusions.

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How can you dismiss something without providing a source of dismissal?

Anyway, you are wrong in this particular case. For two reasons:

1) The U.S. Department of Labor reported that in 2001 about 5.7% of all workers (7.8 Million persons) had more than one job. So, the 2005 figure (which adds to 7.5 million) posted in this thread is mathematically speaking correct.

2) This is NOT related to this issue as the figures in here are more than accurate. They are in fact, precise. But let's assume he would have given you smaller figures, but the differences within the same grade of magnitude? Sometimes you can predict % or projections based on "sample data" if it is done correctly (election polls use this trick when they project a winner with only a small percentage of the votes counted or the people polled outside). But once again, that's not the case here as the figures provided are accurate.

You cannot apply "logic" on everything. If "logic" was the essense in this World, then we would not need Mathematicians, Engineers, Statistians, etc. There some rules that govern those professions.

It is not good to be "dismissal" on issues that can be disproved by simply doing a quick search. Especially when it comes to hard statistical data that is collected by the Government.

Latinoman said:

How can you dismiss something without providing a source of dismissal?

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Because the difference between ~ 4million and 1-2 million is the difference between an insignificant amount and an insignficiant amount with compared to 300 million people. The VAST majority of people work only one job or no job, regardless of marital status.

Anyway, you are wrong in this particular case.

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I am rarely wrong about much of anything. This wont be an exception.

For two reasons:

1) The U.S. Department of Labor reported that in 2001 about 5.7% of all workers (7.8 Million persons) had more than one job. So, the 2005 figure (which adds to 7.5 million) posted in this thread is mathematically speaking correct.

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And i said nothing to dispute this. 5.7% is still an insignficant amount. that means ~94% of workers just have one job. So, you're drawing conclusions from outlier situations and that is not a very intelligent thing to do. Most people just work one job, married or not, hence the uselessness of this statistic.

2) This is NOT related to this issue as the figures in here are more than accurate. They are in fact, precise. But let's assume he would have given you smaller figures, but the differences within the same grade of magnitude? Sometimes you can predict % or projections based on "sample data" if it is done correctly (election polls use this trick when they project a winner with only a small percentage of the votes counted or the people polled outside). But once again, that's not the case here as the figures provided are accurate.

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To be accurate is not a lesser state of precision. Accuracy is actually a better thing in this case because accuracy means how close you are to the true value. Precision means to be making a repeatible result, regardless of how right or wrong it is. Regardless, 5%, or 4 million of 300million (whichever figure we're discussion) is an insignifant amount in either case, hence only fools draw conclusions from this.

You cannot apply "logic" on everything. If "logic" was the essense in this World, then we would not need Mathematicians, Engineers, Statistians, etc. There some rules that govern those professions.

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Though this has nothing to do with this topic, logic ranks very high in terms of an applicable skill to lead an effective life. I have said before I worship 3 gods; logic, reason, and freethought.

It is not good to be "dismissal" on issues that can be disproved by simply doing a quick search. Especially when it comes to hard statistical data that is collected by the Government.

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If you draw conclusions from something as insignificant as this statistic, you're doomed to be misguided.

He was clear about the numbers being the "Average number of people holding more than one job in 2005".

And my point is...those numbers are correct. I'm NOT saying his conclusion is the correct one. In fact, I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with his conclusion. As I thought he was talking about situations in which a person has more than two jobs.


Now, IF what you are questioning is his CONCLUSION based on people working (regardless of the number of jobs), then that's a different story.
Because to TRULY understand the effects that work has on marriage, etc. we would have to also consider the figures for people that only have ONE job too.

Regardless, 5%, or 4 million of 300million (whichever figure we're discussion) is an insignifant amount in either case, hence only fools draw conclusions from this.

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That's how the Fermi and Stephen Hawkins of this World draw conclusions. By sampling (if done correctly) and by working on smaller scale.

Of course i was only questioning his conclusions. Was my first post not obvious enough to that point? I even used the word "conclusions."

I never said or suggested the numbers weren't correct. I suggested they are meaningless in terms of applying them to any point suggesting a negative of marriage.

azanon said:

Of course i was only questioning his conclusions. Was my first post not obvious enough to that point? I even used the word "conclusions."

I never said or suggested the numbers weren't correct. I suggested they are meaningless in terms of applying them to any point suggesting a negative of marriage.

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You know what...you are correct.

I stand corrected.

For some reason, I thought you ment his figures were incorrect.

Sorry.

Its cool man. You are one of my favorite posters.

Are you guys gonna kiss now

:flowers:

Very easy to explain! They are young couples with a kid, therefore the guy needs to work two jobs while the wife either stays at home or works one job.