Is Being Single Making You Poor?

Right now in America:

59% of Asian men are married.
54% of White men are married.
45% of Hispanic men are married.
36% of Black men are married.

These statistics are hot off the presses and from the wonderful researchers at Freakonomics.  Let's now place them next to another report I first wrote about in my blog "6 Ways to Make Sure You NEVER Get Rich."  This table refers to something called the Racial Wealth Gap using data from the U.S. Census Bureau:

CNN.com says that Black Americans are - on average - twenty-times poorer than White Americans according to the last Census. As I read the article, my mind starting racing. I knew things were bad, but this bad? How could this be? Why could this be? What can be done about it? This was crazy. The median white family has twenty times the net worth of the median black family. I'm being repetitive, but let that sink in for a second.

Hispanics in America are richer than blacks, too, though not quite by a factor of twenty-three. Hispanics are about twice as well off. Asians are between whites and Hispanics.

Something is clearly amiss.

When talking about wealth and income disparity, the less endowed often fall back on complaining - and complaining isn't a plan. Also, you'll notice it's only poor people who talk about income. Rich people talk about worth. So, here's where we are. If you are not where you want to be financially, it is time to do something differently and do it now.

Maybe the thing that is most amiss is that too many Black Americans are single?  Recall what I wrote before in 6 Ways to Make Sure You NEVER Get Rich:

You will (most likely) never get rich if you stay single. It is better to get married and stay married. Remaining single well into adulthood and divorce both destroy wealth, income, savings and stability. Not only will you destroy what you have worked for if you divorce, but you make it harder to come back up. Too many separate accounts, too much money going to employ child support office workers, two electric bills, too many people renting and not able to afford to own homes. In addition, it's been proven on top of proven that marriage accelerates wealth. Whoever thinks it's smarter to be single, has been duped for the most part.

Could it be that marrying (and presumably staying married) is the one big missing key in closing the wealth gap?  I think so.  I came across some interesting thoughts on the Freakonomics of Marriage the other day.  I read a lot.  I listen to a lot of podcasts.  Some beg to be shared and this is one.  The authors of Freakonomics produce a radio program on which they discuss elements of their writing and research. I pulled the above statistics from a broadcast called "Why Marry?"

Here is "Why Marry?" Part One

Here is "Why Marry?" Part Two

First, if you aren't familiar with Freakonomics, it is a quite interesting exploration of the economic side of EVERYTHING... in this case, marriage. In fact, their discussion of the above stats are a part of their attempts to make possible ties to poverty and prosperity. Here's a link to check out the book: LINK-TASTIC!  So you know, these are academics with somewhat of a bias FOR marriage but a bias against what their Guest calls "Biblical" marriage. Therefore, you might listen aware of that and just digest the statistics. Still, an interesting discussion.  Married people, in fact, have higher incomes.

It is entirely possible that people are poorer because they’re not marrying. It's also possible that they don’t marry because they’re poor. I won't retype their entire broadcast.  Listen for yourself.  As you do, ask yourself these questions: How costly is being single?  Are we passing the penalties of our singleness on to our children?  How can we reverse these trends?

I think a closer examination of marriage will reveal that there are many benefits beyond the obvious.  I think we may owe it to society to get married.  What do you think?  

While we're at it, want another interesting topic to explore?  Leaving behind the talk about marriage... is it possible that people aren't even having sex anymore?  That seems to be the trend.




Mark Anthony McCray helps people live on PURPOSE, achieve higher PERFORMANCE and experience true PROSPERITY. Forward this to a friend if you found it helpful. All material © Copyright, Mark Anthony McCray unless otherwise noted!

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