I like rich women

The Grey Lady tells us that more men are marrying wealthier women. Actually, the Census told us that; the Times just tried to make it seem surprising.

I know what the Times is talking about because I’ve rarely had any kind of relations with a girl who wasn’t already richer than me. Not by design. It just didn’t happen, not even when I lived in Latvia, which was full of women who were very nice and crazy-broke (although even that is changing).

I did eventually meet a lovely girl of modest means, but despite initial appearances, she had fierce ambitions. Seventeen or so years later, she’s a doctor. And I am hopelessly enmeshed in a profession that society doesn’t esteem, if by “esteem” you mean, “pay money for.”

The wonky Family Inequality blog, written by a UNC Chapel Hill Sociologist, has a good take on what the data does and doesn’t mean. Although maybe I just like the blog because its author seems to know my household so well. From the About page:

Families are one place where the powerful exploit and abuse the powerless, behind the veil of privacy that cloaks the family as an institution.

Actually, he makes a good point in his post today. It’s not that women are working more, it’s just that they’re working outside the house now, for money.

That raises the question: who has moved in to fill the void left by the liberated housewife? In some households, men have valiantly stepped into the breach, but not in mine. My wife and I exist in this weird space between the Old Ways and the New. She’s the main breadwinner, but I haven’t stopped working, nor do I plan to. So what happens? The dishes don’t get done. The closets are disorganized. In domestic matters big and small, we acutely feel the absence of a stay-at-home parent. But neither of us is able (in her case) or willing (in mine) to take on that role.

That’s why I’m gonna fill out and mail this Census 2010 form (although, seriously, it’s 2010, why can’t we just fill it out online?). I can only hope that in nine years, once they’ve crunched the numbers the right way, the New York Times will write a silly little trend piece about me.