절대적 진리임이...

독신의 삶이나 이혼한 상태로 삶을 유지하는 것은 재산을 모으는 경제적인 면에서는

결혼한 부부보다 거의 2배나 손해라는 한 조사결과가 나왔다. 이혼이나 독신 생활은

경제적 독립을 저해하는 길이며 개인의 절대적 가치의 3/4이라는 평균적 손실을 가져

온다고. 1985년부터 2000년까지 9,055쌍을 상대로 베이비붐 마지막 세대인 41살에서

49살까지를 조사한 결과를 발표했다.가끔씩 독신의 유리한 점 편리한 점 낭만성 등을

상당히 선정적인 면에 초점을 맞추어사람들이 듣기를 원하는 것만을 골라 많은 여러 사실

중에서 밝힘으로 독신과 홀로의 삶과 이혼 등을 고려해 보긴 해도 이는 결과적으로 사회적

개인적 손실로 나타나며 빈궁한 사회를 만들어 낸다는 사실을 알 수 있다. 시대적 사류

사조 경향 유행일 수는 있겠지만 결혼은 절대적 항구 진리임을 다시 한 번 일깨우는 계기.

자 우리 이제 결혼하고 경제적 안정을 찾아 풍요로운 멋진 사회를 만들어보자구요

Study Finds That Marriage Builds Wealth

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 18, 4:43 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Marrying for money, it turns out, works. A study by an Ohio State University researcher

shows that a person who marries ? and stays married ? accumulates nearly twice as much personal wealth

as a person who is single or divorced. And for those who divorce, it's a bit more expensive than giving up

half of everything they own. They lose, on average, three-fourths of their personal net worth.

"Getting married for a few years and then getting divorced is clearly not the path to financial independence,"

said Jay Zagorsky, whose study divided married couples' assets so they could be compared with singles.

Zagorsky, a research scientist at OSU's Center for Human Resource Research, tracked the wealth and marital

status of 9,055 people from 1985 to 2000. Those people have been participating in the National Longitudinal Survey

of Youth, which has repeatedly interviewed them about various aspects of their lives since 1979.

The participants are now 41 to 49 years old, making them the youngest of the baby boomers.

Zagorsky cautioned that results could be different for older and younger Americans, who have faced different

attitudes about marriage, divorce and living together without marriage.

Zagorsky's study, which is published in the current issue of the Journal of Sociology, defines wealth as the total

value of a person's assets, such as real estate, stocks and bank accounts, minus liabilities, such as mortgages.

A big reason married people accumulate more wealth than others is simple economies of scale ? one household is

cheaper to maintain than two, Zagorsky said. Divorce reverses those benefits, he said.

"Divorce looks like one of the fastest ways to destroy your wealth," Zagorsky said.

David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, said people become more

economically productive after they marry. "They work harder, they advance further in their job, they save more money,

and maybe invest more wisely," Popenoe said. "That's because, one can speculate, they are now working for

something larger than themselves. They are working for a family." Zagorsky showed that single people slowly

accumulated wealth during the study, going from a median of $1,500 at the start to $10,900 in the 15th year.

Married people accumulated wealth much faster, accumulating 93 percent more than single or divorced people over

the life of the study, Zagorsky said. People who divorced started losing net worth four years before their divorces

were final, Zagorsky said. That could be because they had separated before divorcing, forcing them to support two households, he said.

The study found that men fared better than women after divorce, holding about 2 1/2 times the wealth. However,

in dollars, it added up to a difference of only $5,124.

"While men come out slightly ahead, divorce destroys wealth dramatically for both sexes," Zagorsky wrote in his study.