Title: | Discussions of topics pertaining to men |
Notice: | Please read all replies to note 1 |
Moderator: | QUARK::LIONEL E |
Created: | Thu Jan 21 1993 |
Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
Number of topics: | 268 |
Total number of notes: | 12755 |
Influential Study on Divorce Erred on Statistics The Boston Globe May 17, 1996 ASSOCIATED PRESS It was a stunning statistic, and it was influential in the movement to change US divorce and child support laws. Eleven years ago, the socialogist Lenore J. Weitzman published "The Divorce Revolution," her groundbreaking study of California's no-fault divorce system. In it, she reported that women's households suffered a 73 percent drop in their standard of living in the first year after divorce, while men's households enjoyed a 42 percent rise. Since then, the figures have been quoted hundreds of times in newspapers, speeches and court rulings. There's one problem: Her figures are wrong. Richard R. Peterson, a New Your sociologist who reanalyzed Weitzman's data from computer and paper records archived at Radcliffe College's Murray Research Center, found a 27 percent decline in women's post-divorce standard of living and a 10 percent increase in men's -- still a serious gap, but not the catastrophic one that Weitzman saw. Weitzman, a professor of sociology and law at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. now acknowledges her figures were wrong. She blames the loss of her original computer data file, a weighting error or a mistake in the calculations performed by a research assistant. But "I'm responsible -- I reported it," she says.
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220.1 | CSC32::HADDOCK | Saddle Rozinante | Fri May 17 1996 11:26 | 7 | |
What's the bets that that is the _only_ time we see _that_ report? Also has been discussed here before that if you figure in child support and taxes paid on pre-child support income, it is the NCP'S standard of living that drops like a rock. fred(); | |||||
220.2 | NAC::TRAMP::GRADY | Squash that bug! (tm) | Fri May 17 1996 12:47 | 5 | |
So....who's got the garbanzos sufficient to cross-post that one in =wn= ;-) tim | |||||
220.3 | .2 | MKOTS3::RAUH | I survived the Cruel Spa | Fri May 17 1996 12:50 | 2 |
Why would someone want to pee on an electric fence.:) | |||||
220.4 | BIGQ::GARDNER | justme....jacqui | Fri May 17 1996 13:09 | 9 | |
It may be posted if one gets written permission from the source. justme....jacqui co-mod =wn= | |||||
220.5 | QUARK::LIONEL | Free advice is worth every cent | Fri May 17 1996 13:43 | 5 | |
Digital policy does not require permission for articles sourced from outside. I suppose one could argue about copyright "fair use" considerations - my take on it is that it is fair use. Steve | |||||
220.6 | MROA::YANNEKIS | Fri May 17 1996 14:02 | 15 | ||
> So....who's got the garbanzos sufficient to cross-post that one in =wn= I'd bet the reaction would be something like. "OK the original report was off but the basic premise is still correct. Men are better off and women a lot worse off after divorce." Given the base note a comment like that would be fair IMO. What is the bigger problem ... reporting problems in the studies and the media or equitable divorce settlements? Personally I'd like to see enough detail about stuff like the items in .1 so I could form an informed opinion of the situation overall (I know lots of anedotes of both sides). Greg | |||||
220.7 | MKOTS3::RAUH | I survived the Cruel Spa | Fri May 17 1996 14:11 | 2 | |
Bet you the =wm- files already have a copy.:) | |||||
220.8 | CSC32::HADDOCK | Saddle Rozinante | Fri May 17 1996 14:50 | 38 | |
re .6 > Personally I'd like to see enough detail about stuff like the items in > .1 so I could form an informed opinion of the situation overall (I know > lots of anedotes of both sides). Somebody gave a rundown in one of the other notes in this conference a while back on the child support payments and tax burdens. I don't have the time right now to go look it up. Maybe the person who put it in can give a pointer. Anyway after taking out all the different taxes, child support, auto license, etc, it seems like it boiled down that a NCP in Ma. that makes $50K/yr ends up with about $8k/yr to live on, and maybe support a second family. Just a few intuitive observations: Total tax burden on a person's income works out to about 43% by the time you figure Federal, FICA, Medicare, State, local, property, sales, etc. Somewhere in May 1-5 (depending on who you're talking to) is "tax freedom day". That is the amount of time you work since the first of January to pay your taxes. Child support is not deductible. It is tax-free to the NCP. The CP gets the child deductions unless specifically stated in the custody orders. Most states base child support on gross (before tax) income. Seems like Ma. is something like 40%, Colo is based on some dollar amount worked out by some formula based on gross income of both parents. But again remember that the money to the CP is tax free. So given 40+% tax and 40% "child support". The NCP is left with something like 17%, or $8,500 out of $50,000 in "disposable income". And you wondered why you were eating hot-dogs while the ex is driving a new car and everyone is telling you how much worse off divorced women are than divorced men. And given that, in most states, being one dollar short in the payments is just as bad as not paying at all, you wonder why so many men just say "sc%%% it" and walk away, and it's getting harder and harder to walk away. fred(); | |||||
220.9 | MROA::SPICER | Mon May 20 1996 12:24 | 12 | ||
Is this report about the incomes of divorced men versus divorced women, ie no children involved. If this is the case then it just represents 2 people getting back to supporting themselves, and I don't what it proves other than there is still a disparity in pay. If it purports to represent the average divorce, including those that involve children an child support, then I'd love to know where it was done because moving there would save me from financial ruin. Martin | |||||
220.10 | MKOTS3::RAUH | I survived the Cruel Spa | Mon May 20 1996 13:43 | 4 | |
Whelp... there are groups that are hell bent on stopping studies to be done to show that men wind up sleeping in cars, on couchs, and in tents along the Merrimack river. |