The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Economics of Love

Posted on | January 21, 2011 | 27 Comments

That’s when she told me a story
About free milk and a cow.
She said, ‘No hugging, no kissing
Until I get a wedding vow . . .’

Research affirms old-fashioned common sense:

As women progress in educational and professional opportunities, their odds of finding a committed man appear to go down.
That’s one of the findings in the new book “Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate and Think About Marrying,” by researchers Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker at the University of Texas at Austin.
Researchers found that since women in the 18- to 23-year-old group feel they don’t need men for financial dependence, many of them feel they can play around with multiple partners without consequence, and that the early 20s isn’t the time to have a serious relationship. But eventually, they do come to want a real, lasting relationship. The problem is that there will still be women who will have sex readily without commitment, and since men know this, fewer of them are willing to go steady.
“Women have plenty of freedom, but freedom does not translate easily into getting what you want,” Regnerus said.
The wide availability of pornography has also influenced the dynamics of relations between men and women, Regnerus said. A segment of 20-something men are content to have their sexual experiences by themselves, removing them from the pool of available partners. That means high-quality men – likely those who want monogamous, committed relationships – are still eligible for dating, but the overall dating pool has shrunk, meaning some women will be left unsatisfactorily single.

Which is to say that it is in women’s long-term best interests to organize a nookie shortage — making sex available only on condition of marriage — and to revile as sluts those floozies who refuse to cooperate with efforts of the Nookie Cartel to increase the value of the aforesaid commodity.

But why lecture, when it has been so well expressed in a song?

UPDATE: Linked by James Nicholas, the father of two girls. Having daughters tends to help a guy get in touch with his inner social conservative.


Category: Culture, Economics, Marriage, Science, Sex

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