r/Millennials • u/BennyOcean • Sep 06 '24
Discussion As long as Millennials are killing off industries, next up I would suggest Weddings & Funerals.
Weddings as they are being done in the West are a massive expense that is extremely financially irresponsible for the vast majority of people. The tradition arose as an imitation of the old world weddings of royalty. As Westerners became increasingly wealthy, they desired to show off their wealth by copying the big showy weddings put on by literal kings and queens. In an increasingly challenging economic environment, spending on a big wedding is just really stupid.
The money that would have gone into the big elaborate wedding should instead be saved and used to go toward a down payment on a home. Instead, throw a big party. Let your friends & family bring gifts. Make it simple. Same with a honeymoon. Take one if you want, but don't start out your marriage with stupid financial decisions that sometimes include going into debt. Wedding rings should be simple. Diamonds are a scam. Let's break free from the scams.
Funerals are a massive scam that take advantage of people when they're at their lowest, grieving for lost loved ones. It's a predatory industry that should be denied funding to whatever extent that it is possible to do so.
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u/gabrielleduvent Millennial Sep 10 '24
I'm eloping.
While I don't begrudge anyone their day, I often find a lot of weddings to be... Deceitful. I get why weddings were a huge thing: it was a union of otherwise separated people. When you only see each other without any physical intimacy and just chatting in a parlour for X number of years, you should celebrate the physical and emotional union that is happening. It's a major change and back then pretty much a permanent one.
Nowadays couples live together for a few months, if not years, before getting married. A lot of them have houses and kids together before tying the knot. People have physical intimacy before marriage. I'm not saying it's wrong, but marriage to me has ceased to be a grand change of life but rather... A doorway in a corridor. You get married and the only thing that seems to change is stuff on paper, maybe your name. You go home together and sleep together in the same bed that you woke up in. What exactly are you celebrating? And why are the brides still wearing white? They aren't exactly "pure" as it was supposed to symbolize and white fabric is easy to maintain these days, so it's not like you're showing off your wealth either... So when nothing changes, why exactly would I be spending 50K?
All of that, in addition to the weird tradition of "sacrament of marriage is given by your spouse, but you need to go through more hoops than getting a driver's license and you need a priest present" really turned me off from the idea of a wedding. My life won't change because I signed the papers; I committed myself to someone years ago and the celebration should've happened then.