Response to Mr. Sensitive about a guy’s true friends trying to talk him out of getting married

I was writing a response to Mr. Sensitive’s recent comment that only a guy’s true friends would try to talk him out of getting married.  But it occurred to me that my response was pretty substantive, and substantial, therefore it merits its own post.  Here it is:

Even if the guy has true friends who advise him not to get married, he will almost never listen to them.  He will think, against all the odds, that misery will never befall HIS marriage, or HE won’t get divorced, lose most of what he has saved, and face huge bills from the divorce.

Very few guys can objectively evaluate the prospects of their upcoming marriage.  Those few who can do so will have their fiancees sign prenuptial agreements that keep them from being impoverished by divorce.  But by and large in the runup to the marriage things are good with the happy couple. 

Some guys with money are wise enough  to insist on the prenup (and tough enough to brave the negative reaction of their fiancees).  But a guy who is younger and hasn’t accumulated much money seldom has the foresight to get a prenup. 

And prenups aren’t lifesavers only to guys with a lot of money.  Just the opposite.  A guy with 5 million dollars in assets can get along ok when the divorce court strips him of 2.7 million and orders him to pay his ex-wife $5,000/month in alimony.  But a guy who has assets of only $10,000 cannot afford to get raped by the divorce court.  He stands to lose all of his assets and then some.  In addition to child support, he may well also be forced to make alimony and lump sum payments to his ex-wife,payments to her creditors for bills she owed, as well as payments to her divorce lawyer, the court-ordered mediator, etc. 

A prenup for this guy can mean the difference between living in a modest house and driving a decent used car or struggling to make ends meet living in a small apartment, driving an old beater car, and living off cheap food from Walmart.

All U.S. adults could be overweight in 40 years

Wow.  It doesn’t surprise me that two-thirds of the US population is now overweight.  I see that every day.  In fact, it is has gotten more and more difficult to find a nonoverweight woman over age 30 to date.  It’s supply and demand. The slender women realize they are in scarce supply.  We guys have a big demand for them.

I say the following as a service to the slender women reading this blog (if there are any).  You should realize how rare and valuable you are.  Don’t even think about settling.  Most of you can hold out for guys who are good-looking, in good shape, and have a good income.  

But back to the point of the article, this trend is frightening.  I’m pretty sure it won’t come true.  If more and more people in the US get fat, there will be an increasing premium in the dating market for people who aren’t fat. People will thus have a tremendous incentive to eat well and exercise. 

And if it does turn out to be true, then people in the US will have an even bigger reason to date overseas.

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – If the trends of the past three decades continue, it’s possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects.

The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight.

… However, she told Reuters Health, the data suggest that if the trends of the past 30 years persist, “that is the direction we’re going.”

Already, she and her colleagues point out, some groups of U.S. adults have extremely high rates of overweight and obesity; among African- American women, for instance, 78 percent are currently overweight or obese.

… Weight problems will be most acute among African-Americans and Mexican- Americans, the study projects. All black women could be overweight by 2034, according to the researchers, as could more than 90 percent of Mexican-American men.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL66909620080806?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22&sp=true