Marriage or divorce

Chinonso Ezeh
Econ 2010.
August 6, 2016.

Introduction

The idea of marriage has pros and cons. The pro of marriage is a life spent with someone and
shared memories. The idea of having a family, whether human or species is also a pro. Another
arguably pro is increase financial stability for some. The most important pro is the cake.
Because everyone likes cake. The cons of getting married are as followed. Wedding are
expensive. In my personal life, i have seen friends take out loan to pay for a lavish wedding.
Another con of marriage for some is overbearing in-laws. The last con of marriage in increased
debt. They often say that What yours is mine and what mine is yours. That includes debt. The
idea of divorce is never anyone idea put the product of several factors. According to By Lisa L.
Payne, Kim Olver & Deborah Roth wrote an article in 2015 about the top reason people get
a divorce. The number three reason is financial instability.Keep these in mind as we explore the
topic.

Economic benefit of Marriage

Marriage is like a business business arrangement. There are licences, made
agreements, verbal contracts and a dedication to working towards a specific goal. Marriage
deals with cost-benefit analysis. Will the marginal cost of doing something worth more or less
than the benefit. A quick example is nagging your husband to throw the trash. Is the marginal
cost worth the argument or is it cost effective to do it yourself. According to twoofus.org getting

married will increase you total income by 23%. The article also states that some men are
actually befitting more from marriages than women. Because of the rise of feminism, there are
more women in the work field that ever before. As an individual woman, i can atest to that. I
worked at law firm and 85 percent of the lawyers were married woman who have been
practicing law for over 15 years. Take into account every win, every bonus and evert raise
women get. It may not be as much as men, but it is pretty significant if two people benefit from
that.

The two graphs below show the difference of income between a single income and a combined
income. What i like about the first graph is that its layout by age so it kinda shows when the
best age group will have the maximum income. This may not be the case for everyone but i
think it good representation. What i like about the second graph is its layout by the maximum
amount of time you are willing to put into a job. Full time or part time. It also displays it by men
and women. I couldnt find a an update single person income from Natgo( website where i found
the graph). This graph is from 2009. I still think it is an accurate description of single men and
women income. Next we are going to focus on the Economic benefits of divorce.

Economic impact of divorce.

Let me start off by saying this. Divorce is expensive. Gal time from the
huffington post wrote an article about the price it cost to get a divorce. The research
concluded that it is between $15,000-$20,000. That mean potentially means it cost
more to get married than to get a divorce. Referencing back to marriage being like a
business. Divorce means the business is no longer producing at maximum or even
minimum efficiency so the business decides a shutdown is necessary. Divorce is
incredible elastic. That means the demand to be with that one person has
decreased, the amount of time you have supplied as an individual has diminished
and there are significant income changes, unless income is not a factor. Larry alton
from economicdevelpment.com worte an artice in 2014 about how divorce effect
the nations economy. The article talks about how the divorce rate for first marriage
is at 41%. He also stated in the article that a newly divorced man makes the

equivalent of a newly wedded couple between the ages of 19-27.

Refer to the graph above. This graph depicts a before and after. I like the focus of the things you
become aware of when getting a divorce. Whether you graduated from college affects your
income. Whether you are a man or woman will affect your yearly income as a divorcee or a
married couple. What especially interesting about this graph is that a woman with a non-intact
family makes more than a woman with intact family. When researching the cause its because a
judge is more likely to award a woman spousal support than a man. When breaking a business
deal an individual to count the opportunity cost of decreasing, increasing or shutting down. A

deal can be struck that benefits one or both parties. Spousal support is a deal that is usually
made at the time of divorce. While child support has a limit, spousal support has no limit and it is
determined by both parties. According to court.gov, spousal support can be determined by
income, maximum education received, and the length of marriages.

Conclusion

With all the evidence present, it safe to say that marriage is a business of many benefits.
It gives the you the chance to not only grow as a person, but grow financially. Marriage is also
about negotiating. The marginal cost of adding one person or person to your life is a benefit only
to the individual. While divorce can increase increase your income, it does come with a lot of
monetary losses and that is not many marginal benefits associated with divorce.

Work cited

Lisa L. Payne, Kim Olver & Deborah Roth.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yourtango/10-most-common-reasonspeople-divorce_b_8086312.html. 2015. Sep. 16
Economic benefit of marriage http://www.twoofus.org/educationalcontent/articles/economic-benefits-of-marriage/index.aspx
Image of first 2 graphs. natgo.com/nationaveragemarriges
Gal Time. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/galtime/how-much-does-theaverage_b_3360433.html. 30.July.2013.
Larry Alton. http://economicdevelopment.org/2014/12/the-impact-ofdivorce-on-americas-economy/ 8.December.2014

SPousal support faqs. http://www.courts.ca.gov/1038.htm