[Xichekolas]

> I'm always surprised to see the extreme bitterness that comes out on these threads.

My guess (although I don't know vaksel at all) is that he is reflecting somewhat on his parents marriage.

I only say this because my parent's marriage was often so. While my mom has settled a bit with age, while I was growing up she used the threat of divorce as a weapon to settle arguments with my dad. She also tended to make stupid financial decisions (running up $8k in credit card debt on clothes when she had no job and without my dad knowing she even had a card) from which he would have to bail her out.

I often struggle with this innate fear I have that marriage means signing away all my earnings and being constantly treated as a child by my wife. For this reason I tend to choose extremely independent girlfriends, and ambition is one of my top attractors.

[vaksel]

actually my parents have a great marriage, which is why I'm mainly focusing on the current generation of women

[electromagnetic]

Then why do you have this bizarre perception that marriage is like a primordial evil?

[vaksel]

from seeing it suck the life out of almost every single married guy I know

[electromagnetic]

> "almost every"

Compare the difference between your friends who are successfully married and unsuccessfully married (in your eyes) and determine what the difference between those guys are. I guarantee you it will be equally as insightful as comparing their wives.

I'd guess that the men who are successfully married have retained an equal share of dominance in their relationship and the unsuccessful ones are essentially pussy whipped because they never stood up to their wives for fear of ending up single.

[time_management]

N = ?