Reply #15: The rate bubbles

[Lexingtonian]

In my Northeastern coastal state the rate run up to stratospheric levels in the Seventies and early Eighties, then declined throughout the Nineties to one of the lowest, if not the lowest, national rate. During the Seventies and Eighties we were taunted by Bible Belt conservatives as immoral, hippies, the result of atheism and free love et cetera smug chauvinism.

The Bible Belt states are in the ascent phase or at their peak at the moment. About a generation later. And all the crap shows up there that was going on in mine at the time- "fathers' rights" activists, abuse and rape accusations, stalker problems, the litigate-until-the-other-party-has-no-money-left divorce proceedings, the shame, the psychotherapy, the leaving of churches, divorcees falling into drinking and drugs and bad next relationships. The anti-feminism and embittered feminism of the very badly treated.

So the bubble period is where there's local cultural change in equality and expectations.

Don't believe everything you read in Personals. Everyone there knows they have to settle for who and what's actually in the market, and in order to bargain you have to mark up your assets and demands the standard 30%. Most people there are sadly used goods or damaged goods, by default. But that's not how to advertise.

Margaret Meade once said "Women marry good providers. Men marry...anything." Over age 30 or 35 the number of women in search of partners exceeds that of men, so the gender that gets to be picky level inverts from what it was at 20 and 25.

The best situation in these circumstances is...not to be in these circumstances.