[AKA_Monet]

James,

While there are some issues you have stated that I agree upon, I do think that Honeychile and you are talking about two different things. There are some similarities, but there are more differences.

I think Honeychile's observation of an age range of 30 for men is a limiting factor assessment. Depending on the type of man a woman wants to marry--usually those with a positive upwardly mobile career goal in mind--it takes these types of fellas a good 7-8 years post-college work to get to that level, if not more...

So what you said about women "fitting the man" into a "marrige role reason" is somewhat accurate from perception.

I think that women do operate with a biological clock. Now, granted, some women don't, but many do. And these irresponsible news reports don't help us much. That biological clock starts at hayle 12 and ends at late 30's--if not younger for women...

Men also work off a biological clock, but theirs is slightly different. They get this "spread my seed" mentality and "meaning for the future". Most of those types of men don't start thinking about that until there late 30's up into late 50's--if not later with Viagra.

There are real biological factors that are going on with fecundity that have not been fully explored by the "medical establishment". It has been more explored by the psychological, sociological and anthropological establishments.

The other thing we all are operating on is we no longer have this agriculture society where folks need to crank out a bunch of kids to work on the farm. We have become a more civilation society with large conglomerated cities with a business and economic structure that makes it literally impossible for 2 people to survive sanely together, either with or without a legal agreement. Sure, you make more money combining incomes, but what's the benefit behind that? You have the work together with another personality that either allows you or does not allow you to live you life a certain way. Hence the first marriage divorce rate of 48%.

Basically, a little under half the marriages made over a hundred will be divorced within 5 years. I've seen higher stats of 60%, weighted for differences in age, race, religion and financials.

Needless to say, the marriage licensing folks have a bit a problem with this.

The real question is what stabilizes a marriage? I have not seen a direct answer to that question. And literally, there is not that much research on that topic.

And guess what, how do these folks, like marriage counselors, etc. make their money?