Americans too broke to head to the altar

[marmar]

WASHINGTON – The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.

The long recession technically ended in mid-2009, economists say, but U.S. Census data released Tuesday show the painful, lingering effects. The annual survey covers all of last year, when unemployment skyrocketed to 10 percent, and the jobless rate is still a stubbornly high 9.6 percent.

The figures also show that Americans on average have been spending about 36 fewer minutes in the office per week and are stuck in traffic a bit less than they had been. But that is hardly good news, either. The reason is largely that people have lost jobs or are scraping by with part-time work.

"Millions of people are stuck at home because they can't find a job. Poverty increased in a majority of states, and children have been hit especially hard," said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the Population Reference Bureau. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100928/ap_on_bi_ge/us_census_recession_s_impact

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[Arctic Dave]

2. It cost my wife and I about 300.00 to get married.

Most of that was for her wedding dress alterations(she used her mothers) a tux rental for me and a little cake. We got black and white crepe paper to string around the town center gazebo (this was free, no rental fee) and we had a buffet reception. Some people are into large weddings but to say you can't get married because of "money issues" is a lame reason.

Hell, I know people who got married at the courthouse that have outlasted the 50,000.00 wedding parties.

[slackmaster]

8. You must have skipped the rings. Mine cost about $800 total plus beer.

:hi:

[Arctic Dave]

10. The rings were just about free.

I had them made when I was in Bahrain and the guy messed up on them. He gave them to for the price of the gold.

When we had our ten year anniversary, those rings cost me some money.

[NNN0LHI]

3. I think the licence at the Will County courthouse was 15 dollars when we got hitched

There was no charge for the judge to do the deed. Then we ate lunch at McDonalds with our witnesses afterwards.

Total outlay was about 25 bucks.

Don

[MineralMan]

4. There ya go. Now, let's let everyone who wants to get married.

That'll correct those numbers, I think.

[postulater]

5. $75 at the courthouse.

Lunch with sister and two friends.
Then back to work for the afternoon.

[AwakeAtLast]

6. Or to divorce

<sigh>

[Tesha]

7. It's the fact that gays can now get married here in most of New England.

It's devalued that old "traditional marriage", don'cha know?
'Might as well just shack up now!

(I don't really need a sarcasm icon, do I?)

Tesha

P.S.: Mr. Tesha and I got married here at our home at a Halloween
"Murder Mistery" party that we threw with a mostly pot-luck dinner.
The total expenses were almost negligible. The only bad part is that
we hardly ever get to do anything extravagant on our anniversaries
because the neighborhood trick-or-treaters would disappointed. ;)

[Rex]

9. I'm sure the powers that be will get right on fixing it!

Right after they steal the last trillion dollars from the Fed Reserve for their corporate paymasters.