做个男人 结婚去吧

中英对照文本

翻译：Mangosteen

校对：FungChuh

Marriage might have been fine for your parents or grandparents. But of what value is it today? Isn’t it, as more and more young people seem to be saying, “Just a piece of paper?” Well, it turns out that that piece of paper might be the most valuable thing you will ever own.

你父母或者祖父母也许有段不错的婚姻。但如今婚姻是一种什么样的价值观了呢？不是好像有越来越多年轻人说婚姻「不过是一张纸」而已吗？好吧，那张纸可能是你这辈子能拥有的最珍贵的东西了。

Take the case of Doug Taulbee. At age 18, Taulbee worked a minimum wage job operating a press at a factory in Indiana and lived in his parents’  basement. “I didn’t have a care in the world,” Taulbee says. “I didn’t even have any bills.”

拿道格·淘比来说。18 岁那年，淘比在印第安纳州的一家工厂当压平机操作工，领着最低工资，住的还是父母家的地下室。「我什么都不需要操心，」淘比说，「我甚至没有任何账单。」

But after marrying at 19 and having kids, Taulbee’s perspective changed: “I had to step up and think about others and start taking care of them.” Taulbee quit his factory job and joined the Army, where he made significantly more money and received housing and health care paid for by the military.

但 19 岁结婚生子后，淘比的想法改变了：「我必须加紧脚步，为别人着想，开始照顾他们了。」淘比辞掉了工厂的工作，参军了。从军后工资更高，还获得了军队提供的住房和健康保险。

Whenever he saw a chance at promotion, he pursued it. It meant more money and benefits for himself and his family. Recently, in a bid to further boost his family’s income, he left the Army to work as a finance manager at a car dealership. He’s now pulling in six figures.

每当他看到升职机会，他都会去争取。这对他以及他家人意味着更多的钱和福利。最近，为了给家庭争取更高的收入，他退伍去了一家汽车代理商当财务经理。现在他已经能赚六位数了。

Men who see no need to marry, or who are reluctant to marry until they make more money, could benefit from Taulbee’s discovery: Marriage has a transformative effecton the behavior, emotional health, and financial well-being of adults, especially men.

认为没必要结婚的，或者在赚到更多的钱之前不愿结婚的男人可以从淘比的经历中学习到：婚姻对成年人，尤其是男人的行为、心理健康和财务状况有着变革性的影响。

Men who get married work harder and more strategically, and earn more money than their single peers from similar backgrounds. Marriage also transforms men’s social world; they spend less time with friends and more time with family. They go to bars less and to church more. In the words of Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof, men “settle down when they get married; if they fail to get married they fail to settle down.”

已婚男人工作更努力，决策更明智，收入也比背景相似的同龄单身人士高。婚姻也会改变男人的社交；他们更少花时间与朋友相聚，更多时间陪伴家人。他们较少光顾酒吧，变得更常去教堂。用诺贝尔经济学奖得主乔治·阿克洛夫的话来说，男人「结了婚就会安定下来；如果他们不结婚就不会安定。」

My own research bears out Akerlof’s view. Married men work about 400 hours more per year than single men with equivalent backgrounds. A Harvard study also found that married men were much less likely than their single peers to quit their current job unless they had another one lined up.

我自己的研究证实了阿克洛夫的观点。同等背景条件下，已婚男人每年工作时间比单身男人多大约 400 个小时。哈佛研究还发现，已婚男人比同龄单身男人更不可能辞掉现有工作，除非他们已找好了下家。

All this translates into a substantial marriage premium. On average, married men earn almost 20% more than their single peers. That’s even after controlling for differences in education, race, ethnicity, and other background factors. You can read more about this in my study “For Richer, For Poorer: How Family Structures Economic Success in America.”

这一切都转变为巨大的婚姻溢价。平均而言，已婚男人的收入比单身男人高 20%。这还是在控制了教育程度、种族、民族和其他背景因素差异之后。你可以在我的研究 For Richer, For Poorer: How Family Structures Economic Success in America 中看到更多信息。

Why is there such a substantial marriage premium? There are at least four important reasons.

为什么会存在如此可观的婚姻溢价呢？至少有四个重要的原因。

One: After marrying, men assume a new identity. Marriage is one of the last “rite of passage into manhood” remaining in our society, argues sociologist Steven Nock. He found that marriage engenders an ethic of responsibility among men, as well as a new found sense of meaning and status in the world.

1，在婚后，男人承担起新的身份。婚姻是我们社会存在的最后一个「成人仪式」，社会学家史提芬·诺克这样认为。他发现，婚姻唤醒了男人的责任伦理，同时也带来新的人生意义与身份。

Two: Married men are motivated to maximize their income. This means having a different attitude toward their job. They work more hours, and make better work choices. Studies find that men increase their work hours after marrying and reduce their hours after divorcing. Sociologist Elizabeth Gorman concludes that married men are more likely to value higher-paying jobs than their single peers.

2，已婚男人有动力赚更多的钱。这意味着他们用另一种态度对待自己的工作。他们花更长时间工作，工作选择更明智。研究发现，婚后男人会增加他们的工作时间，离婚后则会减少工作时间。社会学家伊丽莎白·歌曼总结称已婚男人比同龄单身男人更重视高薪工作。

Three: There is evidence that employers prefer and promote men who are married. Married men are often seen as more responsible and dedicated workers and are rewarded with more opportunities to advance.

3，有证据表明，雇主更愿意雇佣和提拔已婚男人。已婚男人常被视为更有责任心和更投入。也值得更多晋升机会。

Fourth and finally, married men benefit from the advice and encouragement of their wives, who have an obvious interest in their success. There is no better motivator than your spouse.

4，也是最后一条，已婚男人受益于妻子的建议和鼓励，妻子对丈夫的成功最关心。你的配偶就是最好的动力。

The tragedy is that despite all the good news we keep learning about the benefits of marriage, the institution is in retreat. In 1960, 72% of all adults ages 18 and older were married. Today, it’s 49%. In 1960, the average age at which men married was 23. Today it’s 29. The consequences of this are negative across the income spectrum, but they are especially so for those in the lower and middle classes.

不幸的是，尽管我们不断发现越来越多婚姻的好处，这个制度正在衰退。1960 年，18 岁或以上的成年人中 72％ 是已婚人士。如今，仅为 49％。1960 年，男性平均结婚年龄是 23 岁。如今是 29 岁。它带来的负面影响贯穿所有收入阶层，但受影响最深的是中、下阶层。

Marriage is a clear path to a better life. It always has been. And now we have plenty of data to confirmit. But if still you don’t believe me, just ask Doug Taulbee and millions like him.

婚姻无疑是通往美好生活的途径。一直都是。而现在我们有大量数据支持这一论点。但如果你仍然不相信我，就去问问道格·淘比，以及千千万万像他这样的人。

I’m Brad Wilcox, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, for Prager University.

我是弗吉尼亚大学社会学副教授布拉德·威尔考克斯，为 PragerU 制作。