ANNE’S SUITOR
George was determined to enjoy life, and in every major decision always thought out exactly what he wanted. (1) Shortly before his 16th birthday he decided that he wanted to have a good, assured income early in life and to retire early when he could best enjoy spending it. On that basis, he decided that he wanted to be a dentist. Now, finishing a good internship, he looked back on a university life of fairly interesting study combined with a great social life. In a few months he would be earning a good salary. It was time to think seriously about his plan to marry soon both for the settled base it would give him, and to have his children early so that he would have the chance to enjoy them fully. He had cried off a beach party to have time to think the question through.
First he opened a bottle of a red wine from <country-region><place>Chile which a consultant whose taste in wine he respected had recommended. As usual with a wine he did not know, he wanted to try it before offering it to his friends. The first, considered quarter glass convinced him that although this wine was moderately priced, he would only give it to those of his friends capable of appreciating a good wine.
With the rest of that first glass, he considered the field of girls he knew to whom he might propose and have a fair chance of acceptance. The field seemed quite numerous, but when he enumerated his criteria of “likely to be pleasant to live with”, “looks up to me”, “likely to be a good mother” and finally “sexually desirable now and for the foreseeable future”, two stood out. One was Anne, a slim attractive, clear-eyed girl finishing her librarianship master. The other was Sally. Sally was a blonde bombshell, and the image of her mother. Her mother had brought up three kids very, very happily, and was still something of a bombshell herself. Sally worked as a receptionist, and was clearly thought of as a great asset in the office where she had her job.
Throughput a second and third glass he dreamed of how days and nights with Sally might be very happy indeed. When he poured a fourth – this wine was even better when it had breathed for half an hour – and turned to the spreadsheet of his expected income and expenses for the next five years, he felt that the main question was settled. All he had to do was be clear in his mind how they could live best on his income.
He had prepared this spreadsheet a few months ago. Out of habit he checked it against his current spending. A few minutes calculation showed that almost all of his projected spending matched his current priorities; except that he was already spending more on wine than he had projected for two years hence. He poured a fifth glass. Having to suspend his exploration of good wines for some years was an unpleasant prospect. He wondered where he could save to avoid it. The substantial amount budgeted for life and income support insurance caught his eye. A quick check back to the website where he had got these quotes showed that cutting back income support to six months, plus making do with two thirds of the life assurance he had had in mind, could liberate quite as much as he was likely to want to spend on quality in wines.
He checked librarian’s websites until he found data on their salaries. Over the sixth and final glass, George found he was completely enchanted with Anne’s slender, brown haired charms. Sally would never have been able to share and really appreciate a good bottle with him the way Anne would; nor would Sally’s prospective earning power take the place of sufficient insurance for him to be able to afford the wine. This coming Thursday he could make an opportunity to introduce Sally to his friend Dan the used car salesman. That taken care of, he would be free to court Anne seriously.
The bottle was excellent to the last drop.
The Unit as a whole accepted this anecdote as a paper partly because it is a merited tribute to the best Chilean wine, and partly because the insurance value of higher education does not seem to be put forward elsewhere. Solon sees it as illustrating the unfair advantage women in higher education have in being able to reap the economic yield either through their own work or through that of a husband; but also as a demonstration that a husband has a chance of being able to take at least a minor cut of the economic yield to the woman.
(1) George was as near as reality gets to a true “economic man”.
Should you wish to comment, an email to solon@use-solon.org may draw a response.
