January 28, 2010

Mike writes:

re. Why Young Men Are Avoiding Marriage

Actually, Kevin's comment really hit home:

" I had a cute 26 year old neighbor I dated. She was obtaining her masters. She was also over $80,000 just in school debt. At this point she was 27, and still not done with school. She sort of wanted kids, but also wanted the nice car, big home, career, vacation, etc. In order to afford her, and start a family, I would have to earn over $200,000 per year. She also could not cook and liked fancy restaurants. Her degree was also in something that would never translate into making money."


I'm 31, and recently dated a 35-year-old graduate student.  Now, before you lecture, I did, in fact, know better.  I knew to run away even before the first date was over.  I didn't even stick around for sex -- there's plenty of that around anyway.  No, I was curious.  I wondered if it was possible for a highly educated female to have any common sense, among other things.  Maybe it was like rubbernecking at a highway accident.  You can't not look.  It's not that I don't believe the sordid tales related by your readers; I had to see for myself.

Debt?  Oh, yeah.  I didn't get an exact figure, but did establish it at well over $150,000.  Field of study?  Humanities!  What can you do with that?  Teach, if you're lucky... and... flip burgers.  Only a wealthy man could afford to take on this blushing bride, but such a man would be looking for women 10 years her junior, with fewer brains and less baggage.  I am... and wealthy I am not.  A third-grade grasp of math makes such a relationship untenable, to say the least.

The sad reality is that this woman is headed for spinsterhood, if she doesn't find a suitable lesbian.  Her childbearing years (she wants children, yes) are nearly gone, probably gone by the time she finishes that oh-so-important PhD, and she's saddled with enough debt to buy a house AND a car.  Women used to come with trousseaux.  And what about kids, anyway?  Will there be time for them as that illustrious career is started?  Maybe get tenure first?

Anti-depressants?  You betcha.  (Wonder why!)  A string of relationships gone sour because her "work" was too important to spend time with a man?  Uh-huh.  Pets endearingly termed her "children?"  Yeppers.  Divorced parents?  Check.  Cook?  Nope.  Flaky?  More than a box of Post Toasties.   It's formulaic.

Oh, the common sense part... There must be some mathematical formula to determine how the longer one spends in academia, the more myopic and... stupid... one gets.  I had to explain the global warming hoax and the fact that it's a giant global tax scam -- like explaining it to a child.  Very slowly.  We went to watch "Avatar," after which I received a lecture on the evils of "whiteness" and Western civilization.  I'm white, she's white, and telling me that white people are evil.  Sean Connery was right.   Sometimes the only thing you can do is slap a woman.  (I didn't.  Too busy driving.  It would take too long to slap out 15 years of "higher education" anyway.)

As I said, I wanted to see how bad the train wreck was.  It was something to see, up close and personal.

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