Save Marriages and Taxes/Vacations/ Inter-national marriages -11/05

[Smartmarriages& #174; Mailing List]

- A "TWOFER:" SAVE MARRIAGES AND TAXES
- MORE TIME OFF GOOD FOR WORKERS (MARRIAGES)
- INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGES END SOONER

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- A "TWOFER:" SAVE MARRIAGES AND TAXES
December 1, 2005 
by Michael J. McManus

> It is cheaper to save marriages than to pay for broken ones.
>
> The $200 million for Healthy Marriages is appropriately in the House Deficit
> Reduction Act of 2005.  Yet the version to be voted upon by the U.S. Senate
> in two weeks does NOT contain the marriage funding, even though it is a
> reallocation of existing funds, not new money.
> 
> How can the Republican Senate not be interested in saving marriages and
> federal funds?


A major new study,  "With This Ring...A National Survey on Marriage in
America," provides powerful evidence that legislation pending in Congress
reallocating $200 million to promote healthy marriages - would be an
excellent national investment. The study was conducted for the National
Fatherhood Initiative by U. Texas Prof. Norval Glenn.

The study states 86 percent of Americans agreed that all couples considering
marriage should have premarital counseling.  It reports those with
successful marriages were 60% more likely to have had premarital counseling.
And 73 percent of unmarried couples would attend premarital classes, if they
were available at no cost.

Virtually all clergy say they provide free premarital counseling, and 86
percent of all marriages are performed by pastors or priests. Yet 63 percent
of all married respondents told the survey they had NO premarital
counseling. Why?

Typically pastors offer a session or two to help couples plan weddings.

That is evidence most churches are wedding factories.

However, 10,000 clergy in 198 cities have signed "Community Marriage
Policies" in which they agreed to require rigorous marriage preparation
involving taking a premarital inventory to help couples get an objective
view of their relationship, and discuss issues it surfaces with a trained
mentor couple over four months.

Churches taking this step reduced their divorce rate to near zero, such as a
3 percent rate in my church over a decade. Divorce rates for entire metro
areas have fallen 50 percent in some cities such as Austin, Texas.

Thus, there is great potential for reducing divorce rates by simply
improving premarital preparation.  However, most clergy do not know what
works. What's lacking is full-time staff to organize clergy and train mentor
couples. This is particularly true of large metro areas.. The bulk of cities
with Community Marriage Policies (CMPs) are smaller ones that can be
organized with volunteers.

(Disclosure: my wife and I lead Marriage Savers, a group that helped clergy
create the CMPs and the Administration asked me to speak to leaders of
Healthy Marriage Initiatives.)

Three years ago President Bush proposed a "Healthy Marriage Initiative" as
part of the re- authorization of welfare reform, reallocating $200 million
for "Premarital education and marriage skills training" and for "Marriage
mentoring programs which use married couples as role models and mentors in
at-risk communities."

Funds could also be used for "Divorce reduction programs that teach
relationship skills" and for "Marriage enhancement and marriage skills
training programs for married couples." The bill, passed in the House three
times, was never voted on by the Senate.

The National Fatherhood Initiative Marriage Survey (NFIMS) reports a need
for such initiatives. Fully 94 percent of Americans agree that divorce is a
serious national problem and 97 percent agree that "Fathers are as important
as mothers for the proper development of children."

Nine of ten surveyed say "Couples who marry should make a lifelong
commitment to one another, to be broken only under rare circumstances."

Yet the reality is that 1.4 million births annually are to unwed couples, 36
percent of births. And half of marriages end in divorce.  Sadly, only 44
percent of teenagers live with their own married parents.

NFIMS also found that fewer than 40 percent of first marriages "seem to be
reasonably successful after 20 years."  Most marriages need a shot in the
arm.

There are many ways to do that.  Two million couples have attended a
Marriage Encounter retreat, 80 percent of whom say they fell back in love
with their spouse. That certainly happened in my marriage in 1976.

How can federal funding help personal relationships?  Bob Suver, Director of
Jobs and Family Services (welfare) in Springfield, Ohio, heard me speak at a
federal seminar.  He invested $100,000 of public funds to create a Community
Marriage Policy in 2004 that has been signed by 80 pastors.

In the first six months of this year, county divorce rates fell 29 percent
below the average for 2000-2003.  Suver says, "That will save taxpayers
millions in welfare, food stamps, etc."

It is cheaper to save marriages than to pay for broken ones.

The $200 million for Healthy Marriages is appropriately in the House Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005.  Yet the version to be voted upon by the U.S. Senate
in two weeks does NOT contain the marriage funding, even though it is a
reallocation of existing funds, not new money.

How can the Republican Senate not be interested in saving marriages and
federal funds?
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- MORE TIME OFF GOOD FOR WORKERS (MARRIAGES)
News-Herald (Wisconsin)
Nov 29, 2005 

Study: More time off good for workers

Clinic research finds frequent vacations benefit female employees
By Amy Olson
For the Marshfield News-Herald
aolson at wdhprint.com
If you think vacations and time off are only about having fun, think again.

A new study by researchers at the Marshfield Clinic suggests women who take
vacations frequently are less likely to be depressed, tense and tired.
What's more, those who take time off are MORE LIKELY TO BE SATISFIED WITH
THEIR MARRIAGES. 

Compared to women who took vacation more often, women who took vacation less
frequently were:
€ Half as likely to report feeling satisfied with their marriages.
€ Half as likely to report socializing with their families and friends.

Whether taken at home or traveling afar, vacations provide breaks from
everyday stress, said Cathy McCarty, a researcher at Marshfield Clinic's
Research Foundation and one of the study's authors.

. . . The study was funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health and the results were published in a recent edition of the
Wisconsin Medical Journal. Researchers surveyed 1,500 women between 1996 and
2001 from central Wisconsin.

The study did not examine the length or type of vacation. McCarty said it
also did not examine whether women experienced those symptoms as a result of
not taking vacation, or whether they took less vacation time because they
experienced them.

"Vacation doesn't have to mean going away" or taking a week at a time,
McCarty said.

. . .McCarty said she experienced her own culture shock four years ago after
she returned from Australia, where she and her husband had lived for eight
years.

"In general, we think of the United States as a leader of the free world,"
she said. "(Time off from work) is one of the things we don't lead on."
Earlier this year a poll by Expedia.com, an online travel agency, found that
Americans were dead last in terms of getting paid time off for vacation. Out
of people surveyed in Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, the
Netherlands and the United States, respondents reported having an average of
12 days of vacation. By comparison, people in France --where vacation time
was most generous -- had 39 days off.

The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, surveyed 2,130 adults ages 18 and
older in the United States. It also found that Americans are likely to give
back 421 million vacation days in 2005, with each employed adult expected to
have three unused days. The estimated value of those days is $54 billion.

http://www.wisinfo.com/newsherald/mnhlocal/293439185342468.shtml

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- INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGES END SOONER
The Local, Sweden's News in English
29th November 2005 

International marriages end sooner

Marriages where both partners were born in the same country last 30% longer
than marriages where the partners come from different countries. The typical
"new Swede" is a 27 year old woman who has moved to the country from Norway.
And a third of all Swedish surnames end in 'son'.

These, and many more, fascinating nuggets of knowledge - some more useful
than others - will be presented on Wednesday by Statistics Sweden in its
report, Sweden's Population 2004.

The publication, which paints a numerically precise picture of Swedes, will
be available on Wednesday morning, but the organisation has already released
a sneak preview to whet the appetites of the country's stats lovers.

. . . . . 

# Marriages which came to an end in 2004 had an average length of 13 years
for couples where both partners were from the same country and just 10 years
where the partners were born in different countries.

For full article: 
http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2593&date=20051129
The Local © The Local Europe AB 2005

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