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The Forum > Article Comments > Is all fair in love and war? > Comments

Is all fair in love and war? : Comments

By Lisa Harrison, published 19/8/2013

Despite married and divorced individuals both hoping to retire at the same age, this 'hidden cost of divorce' can add 10 years to the working lives of Australians.

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"In fact, the study found that women were left feeling substantially less secure than men following a divorce, with 56% of women feeling like they need to get smarter (in comparison to 39% of men), 36% feeling vulnerable (compared to 19% of men), and 29% feeling alone with family responsibilities (to 8% of men)."

Any study that measures how people feel is useless unless it provides some way to link up their feelings with reality. Were the women, in fact, less financially secure or more vulnerable than the men? (And what does 'less secure' mean, anyway?) Unless and until we know that your conclusions are not sustainable. Perhaps women just feel less secure than men in ANY circumstances.

I'm not disputing your conclusions -- just pointing out that the evidence given here doesn't support them.
Posted by Jon J, Monday, 19 August 2013 7:18:06 AM
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I think the article places too much emphasis on superannuation and on the notion that females are unduly disadvantaged by divorce.

The reality is that upon divorce the partners need to maintain two households instead of one, and the non-custodial parent is less readily available to look afer the kids. A substantial fall in living standards is therefore inevitable for both parties.

Superannuation is only part of the picture. The biggest loser in divorce settlements is whoever brought the most assets and income into the marriage (generaly but not always the male, especially if they end up as the non-custodial parent).

The taxpayer in many cases also ends up losing, especially if the partners are of low income.
Posted by Bren, Monday, 19 August 2013 8:08:53 AM
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What a disgraceful piece of cant. It's not enough for Suncorp that families should be splitting and everyone worse off, it's not enough that men should be losing their homes and having them given to the ex-wife, it's not enough that men should be committing suicide in their 40s and 50s at the rate of hundreds per year, it's not enough that men in their 50s and 60s should be living on the street and that fewer men now work than had work at the height of the great depression. It's not enough that women who get those homes end up having to sell them because they really can't afford them and that taking the super that the man they have decided they don't want any more will not make any difference to that, although it will ensure that money is spent in trying to do so before the wonderful people at Suncorp foreclose on her anyway.

You disgust me. I will ensure that I never use Suncorp in any way and that I do all that I can to make known the disgraceful and venal lack of basic humanity that underpins what used to be a MUTUAL society to build wealth for the purpose of creating a family home.

Just go away and shrivel in the dirt like the horrible maggots you are.
Posted by Antiseptic, Monday, 19 August 2013 9:09:55 AM
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Speaking of divorce, it has now inevitably become so common that the Australian Women's Weekly has just published a large glossy guide re how to navigate ones way through the wreckage.
Posted by Daffy Duck, Monday, 19 August 2013 7:56:59 PM
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Yes Daffy, and the people at Suncorp are doing their best to make sure it continues.

Apparently, according to their infographic, they're quite concerned that the average marriage is lasting 9 years before divorce, where it lasted only 7 a few years ago, before women started realising that being single isn't all it's cracked up to be and men started getting gunshy, so they're making sure that middle-class women who do manage to catch a bloke are told they have another source of spending money to ensure their lifestyle won't have to suffer if they get divorced. It's for the good of the country you know? How can our consumerist economy possibly survive if people are selfishly saving their money instead of allowing all those freshly-minted lawyers and accountants that our so-called universities have churned out in such numbers access to it by getting divorced? It's downright un-Australian!

Disgusting maggots are feeding on the corpses of once-loving relationships in banks, legal firms and government offices all over the country. It's way past time we pulled out the bugspray.
Posted by Antiseptic, Monday, 19 August 2013 8:29:07 PM
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I am going through a divorce at the moment and found this really useful. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
Posted by jbrown, Tuesday, 20 August 2013 8:35:50 PM
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