As men live longer, the female advantage in longevity is declining, so wives are spending more of their final years with husbands. Happy reactions: 1) Women won't be as lonely. 2) Women stay healthier and live longer if their husbands are still around. 3) Women also do better financially. Cynical reactions: 1) Keeping a husband only marginally improves a woman's longevity. 2) The only reason women with husbands do better financially is that men have more pensions and Social Security; these sexist advantages are eroding. 3) Men are lazy, thoughtless, burdensome slobs; a woman is better off with a real helper or companion. (For Human Nature's takes on the costs and benefits of improving longevity, click here and here.)
From the NYTimes ("Cynical reactions" above)
Marriage lowers everyone's risk of death, Professor Lee said, but the benefits go mostly to men; women lower their risk only slightly by marrying. Similarly, a man's risk of death increases sharply after the death of a spouse; a wife's does only negligibly.
"Women are very helpful for men," he said. "Men are not very helpful for women as spouses."
Women not only do fine despite a spouse's death, they may even do better.
So if I really wanta do something nice for my wife, I should croak? Fuck that! It'll happen when it happens.
Us old farts think about this shit sometimes.
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