Wealth creates freedom, and freedom creates the opportunity to do wrong. The divorce rate is dropping along with the economy.
The recession and economic turmoil is creating a new class of casualties: Married couples who can't afford to get divorced. In these tough times many people are finding it's cheaper to stay together, even when they can't stand each other.
Aww, poor babies, they can't stand each other! No mention of their vows or the children who are potentially prevented from becoming "casualties" of their parents' selfishness.
A major factor in the divorce downturn, Booden [a family law and divorce attorney] said, is divorced couples have to establish two separate households with current funds -- a prohibitive factor when you're looking at divorce in tough economic times.Booden said one out of every two clients is seeking consultations because they can't afford to get divorced. They want to know what other options they might have.
"I tell them about the process, about the cost, and what a reasonable outcome might be. And once they hear the cost, and especially how you have to duplicate two households on the same money that currently funds one household, they try to think about some other options," she said.
I guess greed is good! People who just can't stand each other and are willing to break their vows for their own selfish reasons reconsider when their standard of living is on the line. Maybe this does something to undermine the common assertion by divorcees that splitting up was better for the kids than staying together would have been? Except in cases of abuse divorce is rarely about the good of the children, it's about the whims and lusts of the parents.
So, there's nothing wrong with wealth and there's nothing wrong with freedom; but it's much easier to do the right thing when you've got no other choice.
(HT: RD.)
