It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides in China

Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by oldgregg on Friday June 05, 2009 @04:49AM (#642922)

I wonder what would be a good way to eliminate few million restless males ages 18-35? Let's just say it probably involves a land war with the west.

Hopefully our MTV will subvert their plans.

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Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by gaius on Friday June 05, 2009 @05:43AM (#642955)

This should be obvious. Look what happens in a culture where the wealthy/powerful are allowed 4 wives, on top of there already being a shortage of females.

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Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by tokenadult on Friday June 05, 2009 @10:01AM (#643185)

Look what happens in a culture where the wealthy/powerful are allowed 4 wives, on top of there already being a shortage of females.

What specifically does happen? In the culture I live in, there is aspirational lifelong monogamy as an ideal, and practical serial monogamy as a commonplace lifestyle, but I don't know what happens in a society with a highly skewed ratio of males to females. Especially, I don't know what happens if some men can have four wives and others none at all.

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Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by udekaf on Friday June 05, 2009 @09:32AM (#643144)

good point, I am always curious about how the Musilm solve the problem of male/female inbalance given the fact that one man can marry 4 wives.

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Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by barry-cotter on Friday June 05, 2009 @09:57AM (#643181)

In the late Ottoman Empire ~3% of men had more than one wife. Keep in mind that the wife's legal position was better than in most of Europe too. In cultures where the husband is expected to support wives and progeny it gets expensive fast. OTOH there are a lot of places poorer than e.g. Saudi Arabia. In places where the father is further along the continuum to useless sperm donor, like W. Africa promiscuity and the prevalence of multiple concurrent sexual selationships makes it very different.

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Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by jhancock on Friday June 05, 2009 @06:56AM (#643012)

"land war with the west"

How do you suppose they are going to get to the west? swim (to the East)? walk over mountains (to the West)? I have heard this "use the surplus males for war" theory several times. The "too many males part" adds up, but the rest does not.

Far more likely, is to use the 32 million man surplus for domestic infrastructure projects, which is what they are already doing.

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Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by gaius on Friday June 05, 2009 @08:48AM (#643098)

It doesn't work like that tho'. The only reason men want steady jobs is to raise families. It's the genetically-programmed provider instinct. If that is being blocked then men will revert to aggressive competition. We're all mammals.

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Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by chollida1 on Friday June 05, 2009 @11:17AM (#643321)

> The only reason men want steady jobs is to raise families.

You really think that.

It didn't occur to you that a man would want a steady job because: - he loves it?

- he enjoys the freedom that it provides to participate in hobbies

- he loves the time he spends with his coworkers

- each day brings something new and exciting? ...

I have a steady job and each of these things is one thing I love about it.

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