Being Single In America Will Cost You
Defying all logic, it turns out that being single is more expensive than being married. According to the U.S. Federal Tax Code published on Monday in the Atlantic singles are at a disadvantage financially over a lifetime.
“More than 1,000 laws provide overt legal or financial benefits to married couples,” write authors Lisa Arnold and Christina Campbell. “Marital privileging marginalizes the 50 percent of Americans who are single. The U.S. government is the main perpetrator, but private companies follow its lead. Thus marital privilege pervades nearly every facet of our lives.”
After going through seemingly endless calculations, Arnold and Campbell concluded that being single will cost a woman making $40,000 a year $484,368 over a 60-year lifetime, and will cost a woman making $80,000 a year $1,022,096. The authors believe this to be a good argument for favoring gay marriage.
“Many more single people (gay and straight)—more than half of the population—continue to suffer from institutionalized singlism, the discrimination of individuals based on marital status.”
Paul Hudson | Elite.
