TIME MAGAZINE: Who needs marriage?

TIME MAGAZINE'S VIEW ON MARRIAGE

Positive or negative? I'm sure you know that answer

I don‘t usually buy magazines these days as I tend to spend my money on the more important things in life, such as video games or movies. But when I saw Time‘s recent headlining article titled “Who Needs Marriage?“ I had to pick it up. After all, I am the Wedding Guy, and weddings is what I do.

To tell you the honest truth, I‘m not a big fan of Time magazine. I really don't appreciate their point of view. They seem to viciously attack the many cultural values that you and me stand for, in this case: love and marriage. So when I plunked down the four bucks for the magazine, I knew what I was getting myself into. And I knew for certain that I had just wasted 4 bucks that could have gone toward a tasty sandwich.

That's a positive image....

When I arrived home, I immediately tore into the magazine. And there was the article staring at me in bold letters “Marriage: What is it good for?“ sandwiched by a gloomy picture of a bride and groom facing in opposite directions. Hmmm...I wonder what they were trying to imply. This was going to be fun.

The article wasn't very fun to read. I swear, by the time I finished reading the article, blood was ready to shoot through my eyes. It had been awhile since I had read an article written by Time, and to my big surprise, I found out that their writers were not that great...writers. They truly failed to express their opinion clearly in the article. Their writing was rather confusing to undersand. I knew they were against marriage, but they really didn't want to come out and say it. They were little chickens and wanted to take stabs at marriage from a far without getting dirty. But more disturbing, they truly failed to make the article interesting.

Time magazine‘s conclusions?

“...a successful marriage is increasingly becoming the relationship equivalent of a luxury yacht - hard to get, laborious to maintain....“ - Time Magazine

I mean really. Really? Are you kidding me? A luxury yacht is probably impossible for most people to get. But a successful marriage? That‘s not impossible. Maybe the writers of Time magazine could be a bit more careful with the analogies they choose?

The magazine continues....

“As it stands, the way America marries is making the American Dream unreachable for many of its people.“ - Time Magazine

Okay brides, now is the time for you to boycott Time Magazine because they are basically blaming you, my American marrying couples, for making the American dream unreachable. Now, the big question is how did Time magazine arrive to this conclusion? Read on.

Near the beginning of the article, Time stated:

“In 1960, the median household income of married adults was 12% higher than that of single adults, after adjusting for household size. By 2008 this gap had grown to 41%. In other words, the richer and more educated you are, the more likely you are to marry, or conversely, if you‘re married, you're more likely to be well off.“ - Time Magazine

Their conclusion to this statistic is obviously flawed. For starters, the stat that married couples make more than a single adult is a post-marriage statistic. It is not a pre-marriage statistic. One cannot conclude that the "richer" and more educated one is, they are more likely to marry...especially from this one stat. With the stat that they offered, we can only conclude that couples make more after they're married. That‘s all. We can speculate that they make more because both husband and wife work, and because married couples are more likely to be responsible with their money than the single adult.

It is extremely obvious that the author is trying desperately to tie marriage as a privilege for the wealthy.

So that takes us back to square one. Remember when Time said "The married are making the dream unreachable for many Americans?" Well, according to Time, most married couples are rich. They compared marriage to a luxury yacht. Therefore, the rich, the privileged, are making the American Dream unreachable for many Americans.... Haven't we heard this type of "blame the rich" dribble before?

Yes we have. This is echoed throughout the Democratic political parties, CNN, left wing blogs. It's your typical blame the wealthy stance which they embrace.

Why couldn't Time use a picture like this for their article?

So what is marriage good for according to me?

Why don‘t I come out and say the obvious. To provide a solid foundation to raise kids. How about for the fact marriage honors your spouse and yourself with a level of commitment that can only be described as unending faith, hope, and love? Unending...meaning immeasurable, something in which no scientist, statistician, professor, could ever measure...

Yet, they try...

According to Andrew Chelrlin, a sociologist at John Hopkins, he says “Getting married is a way to show off to family and friends that you have a successful personal life. It‘s the ultimate merit badge.“ Okay, so getting married to him is a status symbol, a yacht, a way to show off. Man, this guy is from Johns Hopkins and he still doesn‘t get it! Could you imagine if you were his wife and you read his quote? Man, someone is sleeping on the couch.

So you may agree or disagree with my assessment. Who knows. It's just one man's opinion here. But I think my opinion is a bit better than Time Magazine's.

Well, I'm out. Blog you all tomorrow.

Steve

"The New Time Magazine Boycotter..."