Divorce is Good News for the Economy
07 April 2010
While ever downward spiralling divorce rates may make for depressing reading it’s important to remember that in a free market all negatives can become positives and that money changes hands on all sorts of occasions. Face up to the realities of personal economics. Don’t have your vision clouded by rigid, dated ideas of right and wrong. Money not only trades as ‘positive purchases’ ie, investments in futures, cars, homes, insurance etc, but also in negative situations. For example, capital is generated through wreckage or damage of goods, ( a car crash has the potential to generate insurance payouts, and hence useable capital, the purchase of a new car or other commodities). Most importantly here it is crucial to re-picture divorce and see it in it’s positive aspect. In divorce what was previously one home, with one car, one TV, one washing machine, one double bed, one family entertainment system, becomes, by necessity two separate homes with duplicate commodities. Note also that these are essential, not surplus goods. During the last recessional wave trough we saw how divorce became one of the leading growth markets. By way of example, Capital is generated in the competitiveness of the two sides of the former family, so at all times of celebration, birthdays, Xmas, etc twice as many entertainment and gift commodities are purchased. Divorce has been one of the many unforeseen opportunities that the free market has generated as a by-product of the expansion of the concept of the individual’s right to choice. Retailers should learn to encourage divorce as an experience which can be fun, exciting and even sexy. With over five million GenY former partners in their late thirties starting over again in new homes with new partners or even alone again, advertising should positively promote the ethos of the fresh start. Keywords are openness, change and fluidity. Don't trust any politician who promotes the free market and the family at the same time. Capitalism created the nuclear family, now it's segmenting it into even more economically viable growth markets. The only thing that will arrest the cyclic turns and returns to recession is to abandon the old shell of the family and to see in seperation and repeated separation (starting again buying duplicate commodities) the way to create an economy which recycles itself, in an ongoing circle of repetitive consumption. See internet dating, multiple online identities, disposable phones.
1 comment
Written by SusyB on 08 April 2010 at 09:42:00
Well I'm very glad to hear that I have done my bit to help the economy! Divorce has certainly left my bank account empty but, seeing as it's for the public good, maybe I will throw a divorce party after all....