Yes Virginia...It's a Bubble...

[jk]

Re: Persistence of Marriage?

ps, data also shows that people are happier when they don't have children, but nonetheless people keep doing so, even those who know the data, and clearly by choice. apparently there are other values involved, not just "happiness." perhaps you will consider the possibility the same is true in marriage- it's not just about sex. [though sex helps since orgasm releases oxytocin which reinforces emotional bonding.]

[astonas]

Re: Persistence of Marriage?

... oxytocin which reinforces emotional bonding.]

don't forget serotonin. ;)

400530_461429480544735_446131802_n.jpg

[jiimbergin]

Re: Persistence of Marriage?

ps, data also shows that people are happier when they don't have children, but nonetheless people keep doing so, even those who know the data, and clearly by choice. apparently there are other values involved, not just "happiness." perhaps you will consider the possibility the same is true in marriage- it's not just about sex. [though sex helps since orgasm releases oxytocin which reinforces emotional bonding.]

Again, my personal experience does not show this. Our friends who never had children are not nearly as happy as those of us who do, especially as they reach the age when all their friends have grandchildren.

[jk]

Re: Persistence of Marriage?

Again, my personal experience does not show this. Our friends who never had children are not nearly as happy as those of us who do, especially as they reach the age when all their friends have grandchildren.

the people who have children get happier when those children move out on their own.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Persistence of Marriage?

Again, my personal experience does not show this. Our friends who never had children are not nearly as happy as those of us who do, especially as they reach the age when all their friends have grandchildren.

I dont know about you guys but I can't wait to have children. A mini me? Sign me up! Someone I get to teach everything I have learned and more?

Sounds like a good investment to me.

[shiny!]

Re: Persistence of Marriage?

I dont know about you guys but I can't wait to have children. A mini me? Sign me up! Someone I get to teach everything I have learned and more?

Sounds like a good investment to me.

They won't listen to you. Children are genetically programmed to believe everyone but their parents ;-)

[Polish_Silver]

Re: Yes Virginia...It's a Bubble...

If young people were told the truth about sexual feelings, their hormones and inexperience about life wouldn't let them believe it. Young people know everything.

Sex plays a part in marriage, but good relationships are about so much more than sex. I live in a senior community. On my walks I see very old couples still holding hands and so much in love. I hope you can experience a relationship like that some day.

I am in a fairly good long term relationship. But what I don't like about the traditional system is that the most important experience (love) is pitted against the strongest emotion (sex). It does not have to be this way. But I will be dead long before society figures this out.

[BadJuju]

Re: Yes Virginia...It's a Bubble...

I am not going to have children. I cannot imagine bringing them into this hellish world.

[rlskaggs2003]

Re: Yes Virginia...It's a Bubble...

And like all good bubbles it goes on much longer and inflates to a much greater extent than anyone could have imagined.

This statement hits close to home. I live in north San Diego County, zip code 92130. Here, a typical 4 bed, 3 bath stucko-box on a postage stamp lot with builder special carpet, plastic doors and gold trim runs $800,000 and up. I'm left in bewilderment as I pass by new housing developments where the sign out front advertises prices "From the low millions." Mind you, these are neighborhoods designed with perhaps 4 to 5 different floorplans. Most are architechturally puke-worthy. As head of a renting, two income, family of 5, earning a decent living, I cannot fathom how and why these properties sell at these prices. Without accounting for housing, California ain't exactly a cheap place to live. Everything here seems to be 10% to 20% higher in cost than compared to the rest of the U.S. Where does the disposable income to afford these properties come from?? Are these people throwing caution to the wind, living only for the moment, pouring everything they have into granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and a million dollar mortgage, saving absolutely nothing? Still? After the housing bubble? Has nothing been learned? So, I sit and marvel at my little neighborhood bubble, wondering whether it truly is a bubble or I am just some dumb stump too stupid to get in on the game. It just seems to go on and on.

[Polish_Silver]

San Diego is expensive

This statement hits close to home. I live in north San Diego County, zip code 92130. Here, a typical 4 bed, 3 bath stucko-box on a postage stamp lot with builder special carpet, plastic doors and gold trim runs $800,000 and up. .

SD property has been expensive for a long time, comparable to silicon valley perhaps.

Are you sure the incomes in the area will not support those prices?

[Polish_Silver]

China, Itulip vs Gold mines

At this point in time I think their human capital, in the form of engineering and technical services, is their real value proposition to anyone wishing to do business with them.

These are some of the reasons I don't think its as big a threat to the USA as many make it out to be. Yet.

Very well stated. I am very impressed with my Chinese Rigol Oscilloscope.

EJ has repeatedly said that he hates gold and silver mines as an investment, saying they cannot be managed properly.

GRG55, I wonder what your opinion is on this. It seems to me that almost any business is "difficult to manage" as there are competitors with similar resources and knowledge to your own, trying to get your market share. A gold mine, at least, does not have to worry about "over production" since the price of gold has little to do with mine output.

[rlskaggs2003]

Re: San Diego is expensive

At this time, incomes do appear to support these prices because homes do not stay on the market for very long and prices are going up. There's an incredible amount of 'keeping up with the Joneses' here, the likes I have never seen. So, although incomes may support, expenses are equally high and I imagine there's not much left in the cookie jar at the end of the month for many. I've got anecdotal evidence attesting to that. Friends/acquaintences living large on large incomes but stressing about savings and retirement because they're in their upper 40's and they have little. Makes me wonder what these folks plan to do when they're old. Either win the lottery or sell their 'investment' to retire off of.

So, maybe it's not a bubble. Maybe there'll always be an influx of high income folks moving here with the ability and desire to pay ever increasing prices for basic, production homes. I just can't help but wonder how home prices here will continue to rise from million dollar levels if/when interest rates rise and cash strapped baby boomer/genx homeowners need to sell and scale down as they age. Who will be the future buyer? The millenial with $250k in student loans?

[Polish_Silver]

are SD prices rising?

I'll hazard a guess that prices in your area are "permanently high" but not rising faster than inflation. That is at least approximately true where I grew up, near San Francisco.

House prices did appreciate 1970-2000, but have been just bouncing since then.

Still, if you buy and sit on an $800k house for 20 years, when you sell, it may have kept up with inflation. Taxes will be low the last years thanks to prop 13. And if you move
to a less costly area, the "house savings" will be considerable. I think few will have better investment vehicles.

I think a lot of people in CA are "property poor".

[BadJuju]

Re: Yes Virginia...It's a Bubble...

I am betting less than 20% get married again.

Marriage is like a "bait and switch". You fall in love and sexual passions are strong. So, for the sake of public approval, you enter into a life time contract of cohabitation and sexual monogamy. But a few years into it, you find out the sexual passions aren't there any more. Many stay together because the companionship is valuable.

If young people were told about the truth about sexual feelings, the prestige of marriage would decrease greatly.

I agree with PS here. I do not know why people try to satisfy their need for companionship and sexual satisfaction with the same person. In many ways they can be quite incompatible and it leads to heartache. I am of the belief they should be separated. Have your friends and have your friends-with-benefits.

[Polish_Silver]

Re: Yes Virginia...It's a Bubble...

I agree with PS here. I do not know why people try to satisfy their need for companionship and sexual satisfaction with the same person. In many ways they can be quite incompatible and it leads to heartache. I am of the belief they should be separated. Have your friends and have your friends-with-benefits.

I thinks that is a good way of looking at it. Sex and love are different emotions and we need to get them from different people. Love requires constancy, common values, common experience. Sexual feeling requires novelty, attractiveness, etc. Showing the truth to someone may deepen love, but it detracts from sexual feeling, which hinges on desirability. Freud was totally wrong. We do not want sex with family members.