<story><title>Parents of daughters are more likely to divorce than those with sons</title><url>https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/02/06/daughters-provoke-parental-strife</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Thorentis</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s like saying isn&amp;#x27;t death a healthy outcome for a cancer patient? Sure, it&amp;#x27;s what happens to many people that get cancer. But getting cancer in the first place is not &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot;, and so death caused by cancer is not &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;If marriage is nothing more than a legal contract - which sadly for many people it is, then why even bother making vows such as &amp;quot;until death do us part&amp;quot;? All for show? Why not just put a time-clause for when the contract expires so that you can decide whether to sign a new one? A highly utilitarian, and in my opinion, tragically sad view of marriage, but that is essentially what it has become for many people.</text></item><item><author>ThePadawan</author><text>Not to get too autobiographical here, but isn&amp;#x27;t divorce a pretty healthy outcome to a marriage? So not 100% the most helpful thing to measure.&lt;p&gt;My parents and the parents of some of my depressed friends are not divorced, simply because divorce requires communication and a willingness to reflect upon the state of your marriage openly.&lt;p&gt;As I said, I might be biased, but I think the hidden outcome of &amp;quot;not legally, but emotionally divorced&amp;quot; makes up a significant portion of turbulent marriages.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hntrader</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re talking at cross purposes.&lt;p&gt;Divorce is a positive resolution to a terrible relationship. Death isn&amp;#x27;t a positive resolution to cancer.&lt;p&gt;Divorce is only negative if we don&amp;#x27;t condition on the existence of a terrible relationship.&lt;p&gt;Two things are accurate at the same time:&lt;p&gt;- A marriage turning into a terrible relationship is a negative outcome.&lt;p&gt;- Divorce as a reaction to a marriage turning sour is a positive outcome, since we&amp;#x27;ve conditioned on that development and it&amp;#x27;s now a sunk cost.</text></comment>
<story><title>Parents of daughters are more likely to divorce than those with sons</title><url>https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/02/06/daughters-provoke-parental-strife</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Thorentis</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s like saying isn&amp;#x27;t death a healthy outcome for a cancer patient? Sure, it&amp;#x27;s what happens to many people that get cancer. But getting cancer in the first place is not &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot;, and so death caused by cancer is not &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;If marriage is nothing more than a legal contract - which sadly for many people it is, then why even bother making vows such as &amp;quot;until death do us part&amp;quot;? All for show? Why not just put a time-clause for when the contract expires so that you can decide whether to sign a new one? A highly utilitarian, and in my opinion, tragically sad view of marriage, but that is essentially what it has become for many people.</text></item><item><author>ThePadawan</author><text>Not to get too autobiographical here, but isn&amp;#x27;t divorce a pretty healthy outcome to a marriage? So not 100% the most helpful thing to measure.&lt;p&gt;My parents and the parents of some of my depressed friends are not divorced, simply because divorce requires communication and a willingness to reflect upon the state of your marriage openly.&lt;p&gt;As I said, I might be biased, but I think the hidden outcome of &amp;quot;not legally, but emotionally divorced&amp;quot; makes up a significant portion of turbulent marriages.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>forty</author><text>I think it&amp;#x27;s important to make the distinction between religious and civil mariage.&lt;p&gt;Clearly civil mariage is just a contact, whose main purpose is the divorce (at least in my country - France - divorce is the main benefit of marriage). And as far as I know there is no commitment for it to last for life, but just until the end of the contract.</text></comment>