tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post7807741383628746711..comments2023-11-18T01:21:55.631-05:00Comments on My Open Wallet: The Cost of MarriageMadame Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11536189690094235926noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-39226475594727486062008-02-21T20:10:00.000-05:002008-02-21T20:10:00.000-05:00Thanks for the link to the article. Quite thought ...Thanks for the link to the article. Quite thought provoking.VixenOnABudgethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09400555302792272638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-859249507141903542008-02-21T10:39:00.000-05:002008-02-21T10:39:00.000-05:00I read Dave Eggers' "What is the What" a few month...I read Dave Eggers' "What is the What" a few months back and there was discussion about marriage and dowry in Sudanese culture. I thought the translation from USD to cows to be very funny. I found an <A HREF="http://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/globalization-economics/the-economics-of-dowry-and-brideprice" REL="nofollow">excerpt online</A>:<BR/><I>With the choice narrowed down to two girls “it came down to brideprice”. One of the girls is very beautiful and her family demands a high price for her, one of the highest ever heard of in Kakuma: two hundred and forty cows, which translates to approximately USD 20,000. “As you can imagine, a man like Gabriel, who is being paid USD 9.90 at a beef-processing plant, is lucky to have saved USD 500 over the course of two years.” So Gabriel decides to hear the price of his second choice, which turns out to be one hundred and forty cows or USD 13,000.</I><BR/><BR/>Then after the engagement the to-be-groom has to ensure that the prospective bride doesn't get raped or otherwise lose her virginity which lowers her value and would terminate the marriage contract (IIRC) which would mean that the guy is now out of his initial investment.Samhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03068855919147458057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-78932403754126819922008-02-21T10:33:00.000-05:002008-02-21T10:33:00.000-05:00Anonymous, that's not a marriage tax so much as a ...Anonymous, that's not a marriage tax so much as a dual-income tax. Which they deserve. After all, your expenses don't DOUBLE when you get married, right? You don't keep 2 apartments or houses, 2 cable bills, 2 separate cell phone plans, etc.<BR/><BR/>Traditionally, of course, marriage was a huge tax CUT because if a guy got married and his wife didn't work (or had a low-end job) then his tax bracket would probably fall.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, I also wanted to comment on the article.<BR/><BR/>1. Why is this guy trying to BUY and furnish an apartment instead of renting?<BR/><BR/>2. Why isn't the dowry being factored in as an offset to this cost?<BR/><BR/>3. Don't you feel awful for young Muslim women? The article is basically saying that young unmarried Muslim men turn to extremism and violence. So to prevent that let's get them all married so that they vent their anger and frustration on their wives instead of society! Great!Jonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03060882352687149007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-37725699714085176132008-02-21T10:30:00.000-05:002008-02-21T10:30:00.000-05:00Here (Australia) you must have a ceremony. No regi...Here (Australia) you must have a ceremony. No registry only wedding. But I guess you could cut it down to the $400 we are paying our celebrant if you just invited two witnesses and didn't use rings (not required). We're spending about $3000 probably in total.mOOmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03440274434662150925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14245531.post-3468926503767460872008-02-21T09:47:00.000-05:002008-02-21T09:47:00.000-05:00There is an enforced cost to marriage in the U.S. ...There is an enforced cost to marriage in the U.S. -- the so-called marriage tax. Tax bracket threshholds do not just get doubled for married couples, they are lower. For example, if we were to say $50,000 was the limit to the 25% tax bracket and anything above that was the 28% tax bracket for singles, for a married couple, $100,000 is not the limit between the two brackets, it's probably something like $85,000 (and I am making these numbers up, I have no idea what the real limits are). So a couple that each make $49,000 annually will be in the 25% marginal tax bracket as singles, but when they get married they will get pushed into the 28% bracket.<BR/><BR/>My fiance (a CPA) and I were considering a December wedding, but when he crunched the numbers it turns out we would save around $10,000 in taxes if we held off until January because we would have had to pay taxes as if we had been married for the entire year if we were married by December 31. So a January wedding it is. How romantic is that?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com