Hey, I haven't read any studies or anything - this is just sort of some case presentations based on observations I've made, but...

I come from a pretty wealthy neighborhood, and have some friends who's parents used to be worth MILLIONS. Then, as the economy collapsed, a lot of them lost it all. In the last 5-6 months or so, FIVE of my friends parents who have lost a lot of their money have split up in horrible, blindsiding divorces. These are people who ten years ago you would have NEVER thought would break up. I just think it's kind of sad and interesting to see how many marriages are obviously built on the wrong principles...

(Note, I've actually heard since the economy collapsed, the divorce rate has gone DOWN simply because of the fact people can no longer afford to get divorced)

I've heard the same thing.

I've read though that financial troubles is one of the top causes for divorce. I don't think it's because people are in marriages because of money as much as the lack of money creates a lot of stress and conflict and couples that never got good at managing conflict will often collapse.

An argument over whether to sell the car or stop sending little Timmy to expensive private school can be earth-shaking if a couple's never had to deal with stuff like that before.

Yea, that makes sense. But I feel like that just speaks to a lot of people's emotional immaturity. I feel like in order to be in a successful relationship, you need to know how to deal with conflict, on both a practical and emotional level.

It really makes me wonder about a lot of people I knew in high school - who I thought were immature, emotional wrecks - that have been getting married over the last couple of years. A lot of them are 23,24,25 and I wonder how much they could have possibly grown in the 5-6 years since I knew them - especially since they were not very smart, driven, or confident to begin with. I just think people should hold off on getting married for a while until they have their shit together. Then I think you want to find someone who has their shit together, as well as a little emotional stability to get married to. FINALLY, I think that when you get married to someone, that person should be your PARTNER. The two of you should be a TEAM that gets through rough times, whatever that may be, TOGETHER - as opposed to a couple that can only survive when things are good. That's fucked up in my opinion and annoys me, I guess.

Although, I do think that there are SOME couples that got married - maybe on a subconscious level due to money. Some of the women I was describing in the original post would not work - and spend a lot of their time shopping. It makes me wonder if they really loved their HUSBAND - or the lifestyle that the husband could provide. I think that's an important distinction.

Ironically, the housing collapse is also working in the opposite directions. Couples aren't divorcing because they don't want to sell the house.