"Whom you marry depends on where you live, but also on how old you are and what race you are....
What might cause an imbalance in some of these local marriage markets? Imbalances in cities might be caused by unskilled young men rationally deciding to give up and move to the country, or stay there in the first place. But another major reason for men being absent from local marriage markets is prison. There are two million men in US prisons and just 100,000 women; and the men in prison are spread unevenly across age, race and geography."
-Tim Harford, here.
Okay, I admit, his thesis is mostly focused on young black men & women, but I just love the idea of using this explanation at the next family gathering.
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7 years ago
2 comments:
Ah yes, the dreaded question. I ran into a previous neighbor (up with whose children I grew) at Trader Joe's the other day, and my answer was "I haven't met anyone good enough for me yet." It was meant sarcastically, but came out a little too glib. I walked away promising myself never to use that line again.
So, I need a new answer.
p.s. I love "up with whose children I grew." I make myself laugh, in some horribly nerdy English-teacher sort of way. :)
Annie - Seriously, "up with whose children I grew"? Since when did the prescriptive grammarians tie you up and make you join their cult?! Prepositions are things you are allowed to end sentences with. (Heh, heh) It's not Latin!
(You know I love this kind of thing to. We are nothing if not unapologetically nerdy.)
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