I'd like to comment on the declining demand for husbands article. This article talks about the change in the conventions of gender roles in modern society, how now woman and men alike are now less willing to get married now. Also how many find it difficult to accept the change in gender role. This article although may seem not so relevant to economics (although they did use fancy economic terms like SUPPLY and DEMAND) but in my opinion it does have quite a great relevance to markets outside of the husband and wife markets.
This article does raise an interesting point about how our society finds it difficult to adapt to changes in society and the economy. The article mentions how couples in which the wife earns a higher wage are more likely to divorce (although this is based on old data it doesn't take away from the fact that this information raises an important point) probably due to the fact that husbands often do not like their social position to be challenged by a woman (although this is not so much the case anymore). This idea of society finding it difficult to adapt can be seen by the introduction of the relatively new video games market in which many people have accused it of leading to violence in children, despite there being numerous studies showing otherwise. This is an example of society finding it difficult to adapt. Many companies have also gone out of business because of the lack of adaptability. Many companies who had not introduced the use of computers into their offices when the first personal computers began appearing quickly collapsed as they could not compete with those who had adapted. The introduction of robots and machines have caused a great uproar and society once again found it hard to adapt to this.
Through out history there have been massive changes in which society has struggled to adapt and this continues on till today where there are great changes in our society such as gender role changes.
These are two articles one talks a bit about some of the reasons why gender roles are changing and another is an example of firms struggling to adapt to changing market conditions:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/the-declining-demand-for-husbands/?src=busln&_r=2
http://www.insuranceage.co.uk/insurance-age/news/2153246/pwc-companies-adapt-changing-market-dynamics
This article does raise an interesting point about how our society finds it difficult to adapt to changes in society and the economy. The article mentions how couples in which the wife earns a higher wage are more likely to divorce (although this is based on old data it doesn't take away from the fact that this information raises an important point) probably due to the fact that husbands often do not like their social position to be challenged by a woman (although this is not so much the case anymore). This idea of society finding it difficult to adapt can be seen by the introduction of the relatively new video games market in which many people have accused it of leading to violence in children, despite there being numerous studies showing otherwise. This is an example of society finding it difficult to adapt. Many companies have also gone out of business because of the lack of adaptability. Many companies who had not introduced the use of computers into their offices when the first personal computers began appearing quickly collapsed as they could not compete with those who had adapted. The introduction of robots and machines have caused a great uproar and society once again found it hard to adapt to this.
Through out history there have been massive changes in which society has struggled to adapt and this continues on till today where there are great changes in our society such as gender role changes.
These are two articles one talks a bit about some of the reasons why gender roles are changing and another is an example of firms struggling to adapt to changing market conditions:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/the-declining-demand-for-husbands/?src=busln&_r=2
http://www.insuranceage.co.uk/insurance-age/news/2153246/pwc-companies-adapt-changing-market-dynamics