hmmm.
I think you're next to it. But I don't think this is "it".
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I think a key issue is that many of the wealth benefits of getting married have disappeared, or eroded, as a function of changing social norms.
I.e. yes people often married for wealth historically, and in many times and places *only* for wealth, but now it's EXPENSIVE.
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oh yeah this is the more precise take. they're comparatively wealthier because the wealth-benefit of marriage has diminished and the wealth-cost of marriage has increased, probably even if we semi-ignore the smartphone variable
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I'd put it more bluntly: people don't believe the opportunity cost is worth it.
They're often right, IME.
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that could be made a bit more precise to be a bit more accurate – people being sufficiently uncertain about the opportunity cost should be enough to deter them and explain the trend
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Yeah, it's a weird situation.
I'm married, but few-to-none of my non-Polish friends are. Locally, it seems a function of peer pressure and a shitty economy fronting reliance on unscrupulous families ("get married, or else").
Not why I got married, but most married ppl I know...
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But this feels like a highly specific local norm, product of how regressively traditionalist old people are around here.
Divorce rates being lower is mostly a function of draconian legal requirements, IMO.
Don't see too much of this attitude in (conventionally) western Europe.
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the interesting thing here is that 'local norms' are themselves kind of a related thing to this discussion? in the economy-geography sense. people move to big/foreign cities to leave oppressive families, etc
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Yeah. The Polish diaspora dwarfs the local population.
Pretty sure this is a trend in countries that suck, when there aren't sufficient barriers to emigrating.
I suspect English racism towards Poles, which is very new, is just the same as e.g. old US racism vs. 'talians/Irish.
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Yeah, I think that's a point frequently missed by Very Smart leftier types trying to argue with nativists.
The point isn't to have a consistent ideology, and the beliefs/bugbears are mostly irrelevant. The point is to maintain your local competitive advantage.
I tend to get extremely leery about "white privilege" debates:
1: "white" is a nativist-racist construct with no good basis, so it's basically carrying water.
2: I would be trilingual & bicultural from birth if not for cultural destruction my grandparents have living memory of.
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