Is this a peculiarity of the US? Income was never an issue when i got the hots for someone...especially when things turned into long-term commitment. In fact, quite the opposite.
I can envision a decent proportion of men, at least myself and a few I know, who would find it preferable to have a redundant source of income in the household.
Even if a woman ends up becoming a non income earning partner temporarily or permanently, having one who is capable of earning more can be a desirable trait for multiple reasons.
Attributes like physical attractiveness and traditional positive feminine qualities are generally what men list as what they seek.
Of course, we all know of exceptions but the general patterns of what men/women look for in a partner is quite well known at this point.
men have been pushed down by a culture that devalues masculine traits. k-8 is dominated by female teachers who don't know how to deal with male students and exhibit strong favoritism towards female students. Additionally, higher ed strongly favors reserving educational opportunities for female students. The end result is that boys that don't come from families that strongly push for education for them get left behind as the state would rather they be out of the picture entirely.
men haven't fallen behind, Boys are being tripped and corralled into a rigged game and they are dropping out of the system
Higher IQs are correlated with higher incomes, too: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230208125113.h...
Anecdata source of one - but most of my friends from college who could've ended up with many many women ended up with women that had super rich parents, and most of the women that everyone was crazy about ended up with men with rich parents.
None of them claim to have married for money - but from the outside - the odds seem to be that at least some of them probably did.
Men. You know any?
> I can envision a decent proportion of men
You can envision it? Anyone can envision anything.
> at least myself and a few I know, who would find it preferable to have a redundant source of income in the household.
"Myself and a few I know"? Are you a man? Then you should know. What's with the awkward response?
> having one who is capable of earning more can be a desirable trait for multiple reasons.
As the OP stated, men are attracted by youth, beauty and physical traits. Women put more focus on money and status. Men are biologically programmed to want women they can breed with. Women are biologically programmed to want men who can provide for them and their offspring. It's why women want men who are taller than them and also who make more money than them.
Sure, it would be nice for a woman to have youth/beauty and money. But given a choice of a woman with youth/beauty + no money and no youth/beauty + money, most guys would choose youth/beauty + no money. I don't remember a single time anyone ever wondered about "how much a woman makes" when it comes to dating.
If you are a man, ask yourself, would you rather have an old ugly female doctor or a young attractive homeless woman. If you are a man, your lived experience should be source enough.
"I didn't want to approach them, he wasn't that tall, but she insisted so we did anyway. He was kind of cute until he took off his hat. His friend was country and I love country."
They explain the night, how they went to different tables and had different drinks. They exchanged phone numbers.
I was a bit bothered that they never mentioned anything I deemed important "Job/Education/etc..." Apparently a "construction safety manager".
The girl ended up mentioning that he was a big Trump supporter and that she is very liberal, I asked her how that would work with the whole 'country' thing. She said that she is always going to be working and not a stay at home mom.
And 1 month later she broke up with him.
Weird how height, hair, and 'country' was more important than job and beliefs.
that may correlate with it being considered uncouth to have such considerations in mind.
Well, generally men do the proposing, and as far as I am aware, most proposals are successful. So if the number of marriages are declining, then it means men are not proposing—either they are uninterested in getting married, or they are but don’t reach a point in their relationships where they believe a proposal would be successful. Not sure what the distribution of those is.
Fun fact. Student Loan Debts are considered marital property in community property states. So her debt is now our debt and may become your debt in a divorce.
Of course these are generalities, but they also fall out of the game theory of dating. For a woman, choosing a partner is extremely high risk as she will bear the children, will redirect energy away from her career to raise them, and will, most of the time, end up raising the children alone if the marriage breaks up. Men don’t really have any of those concerns because there’s not the same expectation they would raise the children on their own without help. I’ve known plenty of guys who ran out on the kids and zero women who left the kids with the guy.