"[Community property is fine if] no one stands to lose besides you, but I feel like it'd be personally pretty irresponsible of me to enter into a situation where divorce could ruin not just my business and life, but my staff, suppliers, clients, and people who count on me. Some people might say, "But if you have a great marriage and pick the right woman it wouldn't happen!" To that I say... Everyone thinks that way and quite a few of them turn out to be mistaken... I don't think my judgment is infallible, and I refuse to put other people's lives and livelihood unnecessarily at risk."
I'm starting to think there's a societal shift in that direction. LeBron James is one of the most successful and high profile athletes on the planet, has two children with his girlfriend while unmarried, and he doesn't get any flak for it. His Wikipedia page just says:
"James has two children with his high school sweetheart, Savannah Brinson. The first, LeBron James Jr., was born on October 6, 2004,[70] and the second, Bryce Maximus James, on June 14, 2007."
I think there's a bit of a generational gap. I see a line around people who were born roughly before or after 1970. People who came of age in the 1980's or later seem to be much less fazed by the idea of a man not merging finances in the traditional way.
I'm not entirely sure why, maybe some sort of view taking hold that you're doing incredibly important things, then the traditional economic marriage arrangement means you stand to lose a lot. Combine that with the fact that even someone trying their best and generally upholding their end of the marriage bargain can be divorced against their will and I think some people are seeing it as a bad arrangement to get into.
I think about this sometimes, but I haven't fully flushed it out in my mind. Anyone else have thoughts on the topic?
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1374169
I commented on my personal views there -
"[Community property is fine if] no one stands to lose besides you, but I feel like it'd be personally pretty irresponsible of me to enter into a situation where divorce could ruin not just my business and life, but my staff, suppliers, clients, and people who count on me. Some people might say, "But if you have a great marriage and pick the right woman it wouldn't happen!" To that I say... Everyone thinks that way and quite a few of them turn out to be mistaken... I don't think my judgment is infallible, and I refuse to put other people's lives and livelihood unnecessarily at risk."
I'm starting to think there's a societal shift in that direction. LeBron James is one of the most successful and high profile athletes on the planet, has two children with his girlfriend while unmarried, and he doesn't get any flak for it. His Wikipedia page just says:
"James has two children with his high school sweetheart, Savannah Brinson. The first, LeBron James Jr., was born on October 6, 2004,[70] and the second, Bryce Maximus James, on June 14, 2007."
I think there's a bit of a generational gap. I see a line around people who were born roughly before or after 1970. People who came of age in the 1980's or later seem to be much less fazed by the idea of a man not merging finances in the traditional way.
I'm not entirely sure why, maybe some sort of view taking hold that you're doing incredibly important things, then the traditional economic marriage arrangement means you stand to lose a lot. Combine that with the fact that even someone trying their best and generally upholding their end of the marriage bargain can be divorced against their will and I think some people are seeing it as a bad arrangement to get into.
I think about this sometimes, but I haven't fully flushed it out in my mind. Anyone else have thoughts on the topic?