How important is money when deciding whether or not a person is suitable for dating?
Marriage markets are very complicated. People can marry (and divorce) anyone they want whenever they want (subject to legal restrictions), or not. People can move to marry, or marry and then move. They can marry up, down, sideways, or internationally. After divorce, they can repeat the process, with variation.
- Many people will say money doesn't matter when love is involved but the statistics say otherwise.
- Statistics point toward people marrying people of a similar education level as themselves.
- While people don't necessarily directly ask "how much money do you make?", many do ask "what do you do for a living?" which is a slick way of asking how much money you make without directly asking.
So the question is, how important is income status in dating? Is it ethical to date down?
What exactly is dating down? Dating down is dating a person of a lower socio-economic status than yourself. It is also known that people who do date down have challenging relationship dynamics which can lead to one side concluding that they do all the work, or deserve better.
- Should people restrict their dating options to include only people of equivalent net worth to themselves?
- Should people simply decide on what their preferences are and date according to their preferences (whether it's dating high income, low income, physically pretty, intelligent, etc)?
Since there are no right or wrong answers but ethics do play a role in mate selection, the question is which answers is considered by community consensus to be perceived as ethical?
References
Becker, G. S. (1973). A theory of marriage: Part I. Journal of Political economy, 81(4), 813-846.
Web:
- https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/college-graduates-marry-other-college-graduates-most-of-the-time/274654/
- https://www.quora.com/Is-it-wrong-to-turn-down-a-guy-for-not-making-a-lot-of-money
- http://www.newsweek.com/sex-race-education-and-marriage-gap-322591
- http://nypost.com/2016/06/01/the-solution-to-nycs-man-drought-date-down/
- https://www.quora.com/Do-men-prefer-to-date-down-and-do-women-prefer-to-date-up
- https://www.quora.com/Social-and-Behavioral-Norms-Why-is-it-considered-extremely-rude-to-inquire-about-other-peoples-salaries-income-in-the-US
- http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_bills/2016/02/ask_the_bills_when_should_couples_reveal_their_salaries_to_each_other.html