Assortative Mating

[carlfense]

. . . it's not nearly as risque as it sounds.

That this “assortative mating,” in which the best-educated Americans increasingly marry one another, also ends up perpetuating existing inequalities seems blindingly obvious, which is no doubt why it’s considered embarrassing and reactionary to talk about it too overtly. We all know what we’re supposed to do — our mothers don’t have to come out and say it!

​

Why, it would be like telling elite collegians that they should all move to similar cities and neighborhoods, surround themselves with their kinds of people and gradually price everybody else out of the places where social capital is built, influence exerted and great careers made. No need — that’s what we’re already doing! (What Richard Florida called“the mass relocation of highly skilled, highly educated and highly paid Americans to a relatively small number of metropolitan regions, and a corresponding exodus of the traditional lower and middle classes from these same places” is one of the striking social facts of the modern meritocratic era.) We don’t need well-meaning parents lecturing us about the advantages of elite self-segregation, and giving the game away to everybody else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-secrets-of-princeton.html?_r=0

 

The article is about Ivy League schools but the same basic thing (particularly the bold) can be seen across rural/small town Nebraska. Anecdotally, a high percentage of small town kids who go off to college never return to their home towns.

[Hingle McCringleberry]

I think most people know that. You can say the same for Nebraska, and the upper Midwest in general. Anyone who travels the country runs into people from Nebraska everywhere, most of the reasons why they left is lack of jobs in their field. The "brain drain" has been a topic of discussion in circles in Lincoln for the better part of 20 years. One of the more famous examples was an entry level job at the children's zoo or museum received 1400 applications, the vast majority were from recent or soon to be UNL graduates.

 

Small towns fare even worse, if you dont want to farm or do some other kind of physical labor you are pretty much left with no options.

[carlfense]

I think most people know that. You can say the same for Nebraska, and the upper Midwest in general. Anyone who travels the country runs into people from Nebraska everywhere, most of the reasons why they left is lack of jobs in their field. The "brain drain" has been a topic of discussion in circles in Lincoln for the better part of 20 years. One of the more famous examples was an entry level job at the children's zoo or museum received 1400 applications, the vast majority were from recent or soon to be UNL graduates.

 

Small towns fare even worse, if you dont want to farm or do some other kind of physical labor you are pretty much left with no options.

Agreed . . . but it's a topic that I thought might be worth discussion.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Okay, so I'm a little confused. Is this article saying that what is going on here is bad? Is it implying that something should be done? Or is it just stating social facts?

 

My only response is that this phenomenon is inevitable.

[BigRedBuster]

Okay, so I'm a little confused. Is this article saying that what is going on here is bad? Is it implying that something should be done? Or is it just stating social facts?

 

My only response is that this phenomenon is inevitable.

 

And, has been going on since the beginning of time. AND, is not unique to our society.

[strigori]

I think most people know that. You can say the same for Nebraska, and the upper Midwest in general. Anyone who travels the country runs into people from Nebraska everywhere, most of the reasons why they left is lack of jobs in their field. The "brain drain" has been a topic of discussion in circles in Lincoln for the better part of 20 years. One of the more famous examples was an entry level job at the children's zoo or museum received 1400 applications, the vast majority were from recent or soon to be UNL graduates.

 

Small towns fare even worse, if you dont want to farm or do some other kind of physical labor you are pretty much left with no options.

Agreed . . . but it's a topic that I thought might be worth discussion.

I'm not sure what can be done about it. The trend has been happening pretty much since the Industrial Revolution. Companies need a certain amount of population base to put in any level of a company, and if a town happens to not be by a major interstate its a no-go altogether.

 

Something we really should do, and Obama has talked about actually, is improve the infrastructure in many of these areas. There are too many areas where cell reception is very hit or miss, or non-existent on some carriers, and getting true broadband internet is impossible. There is no way town is going to lure youth to it with a sales pitch of 'You're going to need a land line, and get used to dial-up"

[carlfense]

Okay, so I'm a little confused. Is this article saying that what is going on here is bad? Is it implying that something should be done? Or is it just stating social facts?

 

My only response is that this phenomenon is inevitable.

And, has been going on since the beginning of time. AND, is not unique to our society.

Actually, the article that lead me to Douthat's piece says otherwise.

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/04/08/ross_douthat_says_princeton_mom_susan_patton_outed_a_dirty_liberal_secret.html

 

I don't know if you're right or if the author is right because I've never read much about the issue . . .

[carlfense]

Something we really should do, and Obama has talked about actually, is improve the infrastructure in many of these areas. There are too many areas where cell reception is very hit or miss, or non-existent on some carriers, and getting true broadband internet is impossible. There is no way town is going to lure youth to it with a sales pitch of 'You're going to need a land line, and get used to dial-up"

Not a bad idea.

 

I do think that the locally sourced foods movement could prompt a few people to move to an area that embraces the concept. Especially if those areas are within a relatively easy commute of metro areas.

 

(Full disclosure: locally sourced foods wouldn't begin to encourage me to move back to a small town . . . but a really good microbrewery? That might do it.)

[carlfense]

Okay, so I'm a little confused. Is this article saying that what is going on here is bad? Is it implying that something should be done? Or is it just stating social facts?

Good questions. What do you think?

 

My only response is that this phenomenon is inevitable.

I don't think that I'd go so quite that far . . .

[BigRedBuster]

Okay, so I'm a little confused. Is this article saying that what is going on here is bad? Is it implying that something should be done? Or is it just stating social facts?

 

My only response is that this phenomenon is inevitable.

And, has been going on since the beginning of time. AND, is not unique to our society.

Actually, the article that lead me to Douthat's piece says otherwise.

 

http://www.slate.com...ral_secret.html

 

I don't know if you're right or if the author is right because I've never read much about the issue . . .

 

 

OK..I don't have any fancy study to show it. But, let's look at this logically.

 

I was specifically commenting on the first sentence in the post in your original post.

 

 

That this “assortative mating,” in which the best-educated Americans increasingly marry one another,

 

 

People (in general) tend to gravitate to other people with the same interests. So, someone who goes to college, is going to tend to be attracted to someone else who did. OR, they meet someone in college to marry. Someone who doesn't go to college, is more likely to stay in their home town and meet and fall in love with someone who stayed there also.

 

Now, let's go back a little farther. Someone who was willing to take a risk and go west to settle the new world is more likely to have a spouse that also feels that way.

 

A little farther??? Someone in the old world who was a peasant was more likely to meet and marry someone who was also a peasant. Someone who was royalty was more likely to marry someone who was also royalty.

 

It is the same as you go farther and farther back.

 

Now, we do have an issue with brain drain in rural areas. But, I think that is more in some communities than others. I look at our community of 4000 people and see a very wide range of people from no education to very highly educated with masters and doctorates...Etc. Even many kids who want to farm go first to college to get either an ag degree or a business degree (highly recommended). Being a farmer today is very very different than 50 years ago.

[carlfense]

OK..I don't have any fancy study to show it. But, let's look at this logically.

I don't know that it needs to be fancy . . . but I'd like to see something a bit more concrete.

 

Are the doctors in your community married to other doctors? They definitely weren't in my home town.

 

Being a farmer today is very very different than 50 years ago.

You're right. It's much, much, easier.

[BigRedBuster]

OK..I don't have any fancy study to show it. But, let's look at this logically.

I don't know that it needs to be fancy . . . but I'd like to see something a bit more concrete.

 

Are the doctors in your community married to other doctors? They definitely weren't in my home town.Never said they were.

 

Being a farmer today is very very different than 50 years ago.

You're right. It's much, much, easier. Physically yes. Other ways no. They have to be much better businessmen/women and embrace technology and have the brains to use it.

[carlfense]

Never said they were.

Didn't mean to imply that you had said that. The docs in my hometown weren't.

 

Physically yes. Other ways no. They have to be much better businessmen/women and embrace technology and have the brains to use it.

I don't know that you have to be a better businessmen/women today. What do you mean, exactly?

 

The technology doesn't really require much in the way of brains in my experience. If you can read an instruction manual you can set up your GPS . . . and those (for example) are getting more and more user friendly every year.

 

Mostly what is required to make a living farming now is significant start up capital and/or inherited ground/equipment.

[BigRedBuster]

Most farmers that go broke don't do so because they don't know how to grow a crop. They go broke because of bad business decisions. That was true 50 years ago but even more so now.

[carlfense]

Most farmers that go broke don't do so because they don't know how to grow a crop. They go broke because of bad business decisions. That was true 50 years ago but even more so now.

I can honestly say that I don't know any farmers that have gone broke since the early 1990s.

 

That said, given current land prices I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a few more if corn prices fall back to earth.