I want to add to my comment that said (in summary)
Become the “right” man/wife and market oneself accordingly. Day old bread hidden in the back of your fridge won’t have many buyers either. Women, start developing and marketing your social skills EARLY. Play the dating game like a competition with a time clock. MEN, you have more time and use it wisely to develop your income and wisdom but don’t wait too long. There’s a reason why there are so many single women in their 30′s and you don’t want to shop there. Try to start looking to settle down when you’re able to still date local women in their early 20′s, and foreign women in their early 30′s.
As AST pointed out, even the “right” person is going to have their up and down days. Too many women act as if marriage is just a permanent date. One woman I know is an actual television psychologist who complained that after the first 3 dates, the guy didn’t put as much effort into impressing her as he did before they went to bed.
Of course, that’s no excuse for couples not bringing flowers, or going out for a treat every week, or making a special dinner, etc but a lot of people seem to break up just because the “magic isn’t there” anymore.
I have a friend whose marriage basically dissolved and after a while, they just gave up. There wasn’t any strong glue holding them together.
Now I know men are giving the women a tough time here, but these little social graces were traditionally in the realm of the woman. She was supposed to make sure the holiday decorations were put up, the house clean, and a romantic meal set up.
Too many women act like, well, men. Not necessarily out of intent, but the fact is that if you quack like a duck, waddle like a duck, etc. you’ll start to become a duck. The problem, though, is that these women don’t live UP TO men. They don’t want to accept the role of breadwinner and because men still have to work, just as in the 50′s, there’s not much benefit for us either.
I’ll admit it, I’m no Tyrone Powers (or for those not fans of classic cinema, Brad Pitt) so I had to learn all these social graces to find and keep a decent woman. In a way, it’s good I wasn’t able to take life for granted. What we have is a culture where nearly all the women (and a lot of the men) take decent relationships for granted and are nothing more than work droids. Some of them may get lucky like a blind pig finding an acorn and some will more likely become a part of that 60% divorce statistic. It’s the cards life dealt you, play them well.
