Divorce and family breakdown is your business. Economically speaking, anyway.

We keep hearing this from state legislators, ‘Explain to me why this is any of my business? Aren’t these private matters?'” Blankenhorn said. “Take a look at these numbers and tell us if you still have any doubt…

Reminds me of a line from one of my favourite movies (the Alastair Sim’s version) of A Christmas Carol. Jacob Marley’s lines are rendered more effective when delivered looking plaintively into the distance, holding heavy chains (which you must rattle periodically) and in a desperate and shrieking tone. Just a tip.

But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge… “Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again.  “Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

(I’m at least partially aware that the correlation between family breakdown, economic prosperity and A Christmas Carol is weak. But an opportunity to link to the scene itself cannot be missed.)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGGohTPuOeQ]  

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Tanya adds:

Economically speaking AND environmentally speaking… Dr. Jianguo Liu says this in “Demographic Winter“:

What we find is that globally, actually, the number of households has been increasing much faster than the number of people. In order to create more households, you will use more resources. And in the meantime you will create more greenhouse gases.  If the efficiency of resources used in divorced households is the same as married households, then, in 2005 alone, the US could have saved 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and also conserved 600 billion gallons of water.

(Funny how a large, intact family gets the evil eye from environmentalists.)

The results of the full study were released in December, 2007 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071204.wldivorce04/BNStory/lifeFamily/home