These are REAL "threats to traditional marriage"

[Ken Burch]

Layoffs.

The refusal of companies to hire the currently unemployed.

Foreclosure.

The requirement that people roam the country looking for work, any work.

Desperate attempts to save oneself by starting one's own business(most of which are doomed to fail, leaving a couple more in debt than before).

Homelessness.

Hopelessness.

These are things that really DO end traditional marriages.

Same-sex marriage? Not so much.

Ad your entries of true threats to traditional marriage below.

[Sherman A1]

1. Well Said!

I think your list is pretty complete!

[redgreenandblue]

2. And Facebook.

Or as Bill Maher called it : "P%$$y-you-had-in-high-school-you-think-you-can-get-again-book"

[LittleGirl]

3. absolutely

My husband received his lay off notice in May. His job ends Dec 31st. He's been on at least 40 interviews since then and every single position has gone to someone already in the dept. So essentially, he's competing for jobs with the other employees, not outsiders. I's sickening. We are dumbfounded.

[Ken Burch]

4. I went through that myself about a decade ago

They always said I was in "the top three&quot now, I wonder if they said that to everybody). The strain tore both of us apart and, I think, contributed to my wife's death in 2004(I'd had work for three years by then, but we were just beginning to get back on our feet).

So sorry to see it happening to you. May your story be happier. May we make a world were such stories never recur.

[LittleGirl]

17. Thanks and sorry for your loss

He's been the finalist for 5 separate positions and always come down to him being one against the other. We're heading up to Lake Michigan tomorrow (we're in Indy) to sit on the beach and relax for a day or two. We'll come back Friday evening and regroup. We just paid off our debt from the first couple of years of our marriage and if he can continue to get work somewhere (fingers crossed), we won't fall behind again. It's like de ja vu all over again.

[Ken Burch]

19. I'm ok...I hope things go well for you

This is just one of the ways I take meaning from what happened. I wish you two the best of luck.

[Major Nikon]

5. If marriage didn't exist, would we even invent it today?

Republicans sure as hell wouldn't.

"What? Now, you want to get the government involved in our personal relationships? Dog forbid! Just look at the DMV!"

[billky]

6. Sanatorum in dreamland....

I was listening to some of what he said in his speech (for him) and he actually made the remark about marriage as if he can control whether people stay married or not. Bullcrap. Maybe in his world, everybody is happy and married, but not in the real world. He's so ingorant, I guess he thinks you should stay married no matter what. Yeah, that's great for your kids! These people need a dose of reality.

[RC]

15. Not ignorant, out of touch with reality. Hallucinating.

The problem is we do not yet recognize those with the Tea Party mentality as having a mental disorder.
Part of that problem is this disorder is tied to their religious beliefs, which legitimates those beliefs in the minds of too many people, on how the Tea Party types do think. And so we allow them to function as though what they are doing as somehow legitimate on some level.

[fasttense]

7. Yeah we are doing the desperate attempt by starting our own business.

It's like a giant hole that constantly needs more to continue. Not to mention the never ending workload.

But we are both in our mid 50s and we lost our jobs (I only had a part time job) in 2009. We went on about 10 interviews a piece. Then the interviews dried up and now there isn't a chance in hell we could get hired since we've had no outside jobs for 3 years. Most employers don't believe you when you put on a resume that you have been self-employed.

Luckily we haven't divorced but life is hard, real hard.

[Ken Burch]

9. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't at all attacking you for trying

It's more the way that the media has put this out there as salvation for folks like you.

Good luck...I hope you two DO make it.

[tclambert]

8. Hot chicks with low self-esteem, willing to date married men.

Okay, and married men willing to fool around.

[Ken Burch]

10. uh..."hot chicks"?

Did you hang out with the Rat Pack or something?

[tclambert]

11. You sayin' I'm not hip anymore?

[Dustlawyer]

13. "Hot chicks" is our generations thing, we can continue to use it until death! Lol. Problem is,

we get to use it less & less as time goes by! Don't get me wrong, we are getting not so "hot" ourselves!

[Heather MC]

12. The other woman, the other baby

stealing the family money to give to the other woman. Here's one that just happenedto a friend of mine. Republican diagnosised with bipolar disorder but would not take his meds.

[JDPriestly]

14. Mental illness in one or both partners.

Business failure/job loss.

Loss of a child.

An interfering parent, mother- or father-in-law.

A demanding child from a prior marriage.

An obsession with money and work.

Overwhelming greed on the part of one or both partners, sometimes meaning the deprivation of one of the partners to the marriage or complete control of the finances by one of the partners.

Fanatical religiosity that is very judgmental on the part of one of the partners.

Sexual incompatibility.

Boredom.

Laziness on the part of one of the partners (probably depression).

Loss of a job and/or profession and no hope for finding another one.

Huge medical bills and bankruptcy.

The loss of a property especially the family home.

Cultural incompatibility/rigidity.

Having to live apart for a long time for job reasons.

One or the other partner travels too much.

Not sharing the responsibilities of household, children, work.

Lack of a sense of partnership.

Arrogance on the part of one partner toward the other.

Personality changes that make a couple incompatible.

One partner feels he/she has failed and seeks another partner.

One partner becomes infatuated with a third person. (This is not nearly as common as people think. The partner who becomes infatuated with someone new was usually very unhappy in the relationship to begin with.)

Often, one partner just constantly criticizes and berates the other. Sometimes both partners get a habit of criticizing and berating and competing.

Long list. Seen it all.

[jmondine]

16. A culture that idolizes working 80+ hours a week

[yardwork]

18. Lack of health insurance that leads to long-time poor health and possibly early deaths.

Nothing destroys a marriage more effectively than having one of the spouses die.