http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/us/more-americans-rejecting-marriage-in-50s-and-beyond.html

Not surprising. There is no reason aside from procreation to get married - and once kids are teenagers, there is no effect from divorce on them. And besides, want kind of man would be motivated to stay married to, or want to marry, something like that harridan?

God that sounds lonely.

I've known 40 and 50 and above year olds who never married. They tended to be a pathetic bunch. Mostly alcoholics, closet cases, and socially awkward ****heads (you can be socially awkward and get married and a ****head and get married but rarely the both combined). Now I don't know the guys here so if I'm offending I don't mean you. Just the majority of guys I've known.

Haven't known many 70 and 80 year old guys who never married other than a couple old queens but they had LTRs with another guy. I think that being married or at least having a lifetime relationship centers a man and matures him.

Dear FairShake,
You draw a long Bow when you seem to suggest that "alcoholics, closet cases, and the socially awkward"are thus because they are unmarried....Surely you put the cart before the Horse?.....Those Alcos and Socially inept I have known for more than half a Century,were inclined that way even at School....Perhaps even in the womb?

Scaramouche said:

Dear FairShake, You draw a long Bow when you seem to suggest that "alcoholics, closet cases, and the socially awkward"are thus because they are unmarried....Surely you put the cart before the Horse?.....Those Alcos and Socially inept I have known for more than half a Century,were inclined that way even at School....Perhaps even in the womb?

Click to expand...

I think alcoholism and social awkwardness are probably spurred on by a lifetime of single maleness but they aren't created by it. Homosexuality is inborn I guess and marriage can't change that as we occasionally embarrassingly see.

The nuclear family is the most efficient use of our resources, as a nation and as individuals. The poverty problem sounds like it will only get worse.

This comes as no surprise.

After all, this IS modern-day America...where family values have been rotting away for decades, and people now find themselves enslaved to fast food, reality tv, crack dealers with record deals, and celebrity worship.