Tah Dah: Taxpayer Costs of Divorce / Marriage & Divorce Rates in UK/ Debt / "Egalitarian" Marriage /Books - 3/27/08

Thu Mar 27 11:12:49 EDT 2008

- THE TAXPAYER COSTS OF DIVORCE: GROUNDBREAKING REPORT!!
- MARRIAGE RATE IN THE UK FALLS WHILE DIVORCE RATE RISES
- MONEY AS DEBT (THE SKY IS FALLING? )
- FEMINISM
- INFIDELITY BOOKS

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- THE TAXPAYER COSTS OF DIVORCE: GROUNDBREAKING REPORT!!

You're invited to attend the PRESS CONFERENCE and panel discussion on this
groundbreaking report in WASHINGTON DC, APRIL 15.

³The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing:
 First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and all 50 States.²
This report QUANTIFIES FOR THE FIRST TIME the astounding cost to federal,
state and local government from divorce and family fragmentation.

9am, April 15, at the National Press Club, 529 14th St, NW, Washington D.C.
Coffee & pastries starting 8:30am, arrive early to get a seat.  To attend
RSVP: Bonnie at americanvalues.org

Panelists include:
David Blankenhorn, president, Institute for American Values
Randy Hicks, president, Georgia Family Council
Maggie Gallagher, president, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy
Jeff Kemp, president, Families Northwest
Ben Scafidi, PhD, economics professor at Georgia College and State
University, principal investigator.

MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA: Please RSVP to Sheila Weber,
Director of Communications, at Sheila at americanvalues.org or 646-322-6853.

This report is a long-awaited cause for celebration that provides a crucial
tool for our community marriage-strengthening work. The report is embargoed
until April 15th.  Order copies in advance at:
http://www.americanvalues.org/html/taxpayer.html

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- MARRIAGE RATE IN THE UK FALLS WHILE DIVORCE RATE RISES
(Gloomy news from across the pond that marriage rate falling while divorce
rate increases.  Many articles, I'll just link to two. - d)

WEDDINGS ARE OFF: marriage rate falls to lowest level for 144 years
Helen Nugent
The Times 
March 26, 2008 

The proportion of Britons choosing to marry is at the lowest level since the
figure was first calculated in 1862.

Politicians and financial experts blamed the Government for the fall in the
marriage rate, saying that the tax system encourages people to stay single.
Academics said that young people were increasingly wary of commitment, and
many preferred the freedom of the single lifestyle.

The data, published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics,
reflects a steady decrease in the number of marriages, bar a brief rise
between 2002 and 2004.

. . .  There has not been a year with fewer marriages in England and Wales
since 1895.

Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at the accountants Grant Thornton, said:
³There really are no tax incentives for marriage these days. Labour removed
the married couples¹ allowance and when you look at that in conjunction with
the way tax credits work then you are better off being a single parent.²

The average age for marrying has gone up by about five years since 1991, and
in 2006 the average age for a first marriage was 31.8 for men and 29.7 for
women. Furthermore, since 1981, the number of unions that were the first for
both partners has fallen by more than a third.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: ³This is a sad indictment of
the Government¹s policies, which have penalised families and fuelled family
breakdown.²

For the full article: http://tinyurl.com/2ozo2p

UK DIVORCE ALSO ON THE RISE:
Half of marriages 'will end in divorce'
Nearly half of all marriages will end in divorce, according to a study
published today.

About 45% of marriages will not survive if current divorce rates continue -
with almost half of these divorces happening before the couples reach their
10th anniversary.

The study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is published just a
day after reports that marriage rates have fallen to the lowest level since
records began.
For full article: http://tinyurl.com/2y5xnx

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- MONEY AS DEBT (OR, THE SKY IS FALLING?)

Some mean subscriber (actually one I like and trust) sent this and dared me
to watch it. I'm passing it along even though it's not about marriage
(unless world financial stability and marriage are linked)...   Maybe this
been making the rounds and I'm the last person to see it. Maybe it's nuts --
and someone can explain why I shouldn't worry.  But I watched it and now all
the front page stories and everything on the nightly news seems connected to
this debt scenario -- and dire....   You might want to just skip it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8

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- FEMINISM

OK, I GOT it, many of you object to the use of the terms MARRIAGE and
FEMINISM in the same sentence. Some of you quite strongly feel that Feminism
is a doctrine that is anti-Biblical. And, you also don't like the idea of
Egalitarian Marriage - not even a little bit and you feel "egalitarian" is
just a code for "feminism". I thought this young feminist made some good
points that might enlighten us about the thinking of many (not all)
20-somethings. This "feminist" couple, after all, GOT MARRIED.....which is
ENCOURAGING. For the record, I am sharing that some of you had strong
objections and that you wish I would quit pushing this perspective on the
list.    - diane   

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- INFIDELITY BOOKS

> Diane, 
> Though there are scores of books on the subject of infidelity, here are a
> couple that I recommend to people, to add to your list.
> 
> Broken Promises: Healing and Preventing Affairs in Christian Marriages, by
> Henry Virkler. 
> 
> Torn Asunder: Recovering From Extramarital Affairs, by Dave Carder
> 
> Cary Lantz 
> 
Ooops  -- after a dozen emails from the list, I realize that the way I sent
that post it looked as if the list of Infidelity books [
http://tinyurl.com/27abp8] was one I had compiled. It was the list at the
end of the infidelity article compiled by the journalist.  We have many of
Infidelity books on the website booklist here:
http://www.smartmarriages.com/app/Media.Booklist -d

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