My Divorce

Since late 2008 when everyone finally came to grips with the fact that the economy was in recession there was much speculation on how it would affect the divorce rate. Most looked to the past to predict the future, but with the state of how and why we get divorce changing this made the past a kaleidoscope of miss information. And after reading many articles about the issue one thing has become very clear to me, no one really knows how the economy will affect the divorce rate during the current recession or even if it has any real affect on it at all. Several articles stated that the rate would go up sighting past data that others said was grossly incorrect. Many said it would go down. Others said it had been steadily declining since the 70’s and divorce was not affected by the economy. And still others said that mostly the working class divorce rate would spike and be off set by the decline in the divorce rate in the upper class.
My opinion after studying the issue more is that the true “divorce rate” will never be known. As is with most things in the age of information over load the true nature of things is rarely known as what you see is completely dependent on those that are trying to use the data to make a point or sell something by manipulating the data for their own purposes. I have learned that often there are too many factors left out or not accounted for in statistics that make it very easy to make it say what ever you need it to say at the moment. As well it has become the trend to simply Google something and think it is the truth regardless to who wrote it or if it actually has any factual base. While I think decades ago the simple “divorce rate” was a good way to measure many trends within the family values in America. Today with so many couples living together for years and breaking up without ever getting married as well as the having children within these “dating families” or having children from short term encounters it is not the simple “black or white” of days gone by. Trying to define the state of the family by simply looking at the few that get married excludes a growing part of what has become American culture today, and further complicates understanding the true nature of the decaying state of family within our country.
I believe the rate of family breakups are a long term trend over time, and the trends are more defined by our society and its core beliefs in family and its values than whether we have a few dollars in the bank or are in fear of loosing our jobs. Hard times are when people reflect on what is most important to them and they act on these beliefs to survive the hard times they face.  Yes there are some that will use the good times to mask there marital unhappiness and bail out when the going gets tough. But there are also those that forgot what is really important to them and a bad economy is there wake up call to get back on track.   The bad economy only helps to hasten the inevitable.