"No Ring, No Baby: How Marriage Trends Impact Fertility" isn't the usual shit, and in it the author Lyman Stone asks, "So why has marriage declined?" The author gives reasons like "financial need, personal unpreparedness, and lack of a suitable partner. Those last two factors speak to the role of culture." Then there's a bunch about culture.

Nowhere is a link to Real World Divorce, which explains, in exhaustive detail, why smart guys don't marry. Marriage is an extremely high-risk activity for men, and it carries very little commensurate reward. If you want real-world examples, just go talk to pretty much any guy who has ever divorced. My friends have reach the "divorce" stage of their lives. It's ugly. Many are basically financially fucked for the rest of their lives, or at least for the next two decades.

For guys, it can make sense to marry a woman who makes a lot more money than he does. Most women, however, don't want to do that.

Our legal system has helped destroy marriage as much as the culture system Lyman Stone cites. Maybe we should have divorce reform.

Lyman Stone seems like he hasn't been over-conditioned by feminism, but he still isn't willing to look at one key factor behind the fall of marriage: the incentives facing men.

On the blog I have been compiling pieces about why marriage is stupid for the kinds of functional guys women say they want to marry. There are many, and many of you will be familiar with them. The best thing men can do is "Just say no." When I've told women that I will never marry, they are shocked. I ask them why they think marriage is a good idea. They are surprised and no one has ever asked them that. They say, "But it means you're in love!" I say that marriage has nothing to do with love and that I don't need the state to pry into my love life. Usually the conversation ends there because most women have not thought about what marriage is (a contract). They usually know instinctively that it's good for them, and they're right, because it gives them a powerful financial option on men, while giving me pretty much nothing in return.

As men, all we can do is say no.