In a not so surprising study courtesy of UK research outlet Mintel, money does indeed buy you love. This despite the perhaps very wishful axiom that money can’t buy you love. Sorry, no money you don’t get to blame the game…although as this author can attest wit and charm will go a very long long way too.
The study found that the amount of love one has experienced in their lifetime conditional to their income.
Tells the UK’s telegraph: Some 7pc of the UK have never been in love, but this rises to 17pc for this with an income less than £9,500.
Among more affluent people, with an income higher than £50,000, only 4pc have never been in love.
This group are also more likely to fall in love five times or more during their lifetime, at 11pc compared with an average of 9pc.
Which raises the question, why and how are individuals earning more money are able to find more love? Is it because as a society we have come to wholly value money? Or does it probably have a lot to do with the increased social mobility that higher disposable incomes afford?
Offers Richard Cope, senior trends analyst at Mintel: ‘People with a higher income have more opportunities in life. They make more connections, whether that’s through jobs, whether from places, at home or abroad.
‘A way we meet people is going out and socializing and you do need a budget for that—going out to bars, restaurants, events. You do need something of a war chest.’
In coming to terms with why those with higher incomes have more romantic opportunities open to them, the UK’s dailymail also goes on to speculate the study ‘suggests that people from all walks of life tend to have more partners than in the past, at least partly encouraged by a disposable attitude to relationships encouraged by celebrity culture..’
Which is perhaps to say the stigma of cheating has worn off as well as the idea that people are disposable and one shouldn’t feel too bad if other opportunities might come along. Hardly the most ratifying endorsement of the human species.
Interestingly a 2012 study indicated that the wealthier one gets the more likely they are to cheat and steal and pay less attention to the effects their behavior may have on others. Could this be where human nature has gotten us?
Yet it seems the overwhelming reason why people with higher incomes have more love interest is because their wealth affords them opportunities to join dating websites. Especially dating websites where partners often place a premium on prospective partner’s ability to pay as they go along…
That plus the lowering of stigma attached to using dating websites has led to a greater opportunity for people who traditionally would meet through work, friends or at the bar to meet an even greater amount of people.
Reflects Richard Cope: ‘Dating is a service we think is worth paying for. People have seen the successes—I’ve been to several weddings based on internet dating, people start to make it more seriously,’
‘We need these services to meet people because, rightly or wrongly, we’re convicing ourselves that we’re living really fast, we don’t have time to meet people as we were previously.’
Asked to reflect further on why the well to do are having more relationships as compared to the past, Richard Cope offers the following:
‘Connectivity has increased our availability, whilst taboos are breaking down,’ he said. ‘Among the young, celebrity culture has made whirlwind romances something to aspire to, and break-ups nothing to be ashamed of.
‘We’re also seeing a new generation of sexually active seniors – liberated by Viagra and a social acceptance of divorce – coming back on to the market.’
And for those men who are looking to meet women on the fly, researchers tell try going to more galleries and museums, which thankfully wont cost you much at all.
above image found here
