In a post about marriage trends, Ezra asks:
This may seem naive, and I’m sure there’s an obvious statistical explanation for it, but how are fewer women than men married? Presumably, they’re mostly married to each other, no?
There are more women than men in America. This kind of surprises me since Ezra knows more than I do about a lot of stuff.
The rest of the post merits a read. I don’t know whether there’s anything significant to pick up from the observation that people tend to marry people similar to themselves, except as a reminder that opportunities for class mobility are especially important during the pre-marriage years. Quality public education and access to universities should top pretty much anyone’s list, but I would add at least two more. Fair wages for the lowest tier of the workforce and universal healthcare play a key role since the children of families which lack either face dramatic roadblocks that privileged children do not. Stepping back into the realm of party politics, it is hardly an accident that the GOP stands against virtually everything that increases social mobility and the Dems in favor. Feature, not a bug.
***Update***
Thanks to the thousands of readers who have not pointed out what a complete pedant I am. But as long as I’m pedanting away, Ezra corrected in an update. Now I feel slightly dirty for using good blog space to snag low-hanging fruit rather than insanity like this.
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About that link (yes, this is more or less an open thread) – does Hugh Hewitt serve any purpose other than to confirm Glenn Greenwald’s thesis about insane authoritarian rightwingers? Discuss.
Egregiously Simple Questions Answered SimplyPost + Comments (34)