Jobs Most Likely to Wreck Your Marriage

If your spouse helps people or touches them for a living, be careful -- you might be headed for a divorce. Helping professions and hospitality workers have some of the highest divorce rates in the country, according to a comparison of divorce rates among occupations.

The conventional wisdom is that police officers have high divorce rates. But a year-old analysis of the top 15 jobs with the highest divorce rate that recently made the rounds of the Internet doesn't even list police officers among the worst offenders. Based on data from the 2000 U.S. Census, it found that law enforcement workers had a lower divorce rate than the general population.

Before we try to explain why some of these jobs might have high divorce rates, here are the top 15 professions and their divorce rates:

1. Dancer: 43%

2. Bartender: 38%

3. Massage therapist: 38%

4. Gaming cage: 34%

5. Extruding machine operator: 32%

6. Gaming: 31%

7. Factory: 29%

8. Phone operator: 29%

9. Nursing: 28%

10. Entertainers, sports: 28%

11. Porter: 28%

12. Telemarketer: 28%

13. Waiter: 27%

14. Roofer: 26%

15. Maid: 26%

The national divorce rate in 2009 was 10 percent. It's hard to know whether the above jobs are prone to more divorce or whether more unstable people are drawn to those professions. Professional dancers, athletes and entertainers, for example, have more opportunity to cheat on their spouses because they often work away from home and are surrounded by adoring fans. At least that's Tiger Woods' explanation.

Helping professionals, such as massage therapists and nurses, have a high amount of stress and work long hours, spending less time with their families. Hospitality workers, such as waiters, maids, porters and gaming workers, also work irregular hours in high-stress jobs, and come in contact with people on vacation who might be feeling a little randy and have time and money for a tryst on the job.

No matter what the profession, divorces are highest among jobs where workers face high stress and temptations, said Debra Opri, a divorce attorney in Beverly Hills, Calif.. Those temptations include other women, gambling and alcohol, Opri said.

Jobs that require extensive travel, odd hours and are high in stress can lead to divorce because the worker is away from their spouse too much and doesn't know how to deal with the stress away from home, said Ike Vanden Eykel, a Dallas divorce attorney for 37 years, in a telephone interview with AOL Jobs.

Working odd hours and then spending more time with co-workers instead of a spouse isn't the only thing that can lead to divorce, Vanden Eykel said. "One of the biggest causes of divorce is economic pressure," he said.

"When you can't make ends meet, that adds an economic pressure that you can't avoid," he said, adding that even highly paid CEOs who feel pressure at work can have high divorce rates.

Nighttime work can also lead to higher divorce rates, said Richard Fitzgibbons, director of the Institute for Marital Healing, on the Catholic News Agency website. "Those who work in the evenings are a distinct disadvantage," Fitzgibbons said, "because the marital friendship usually suffers, with ensuing significant loneliness."

Some of these jobs also don't pay well, which can lead to more stress in a marriage. Better-educated workers tend to have higher-paying jobs, which can provide less stress in marriages.

Source: Internet.

The Most Powerful People on Earth 2010

by Nicole Perlroth and Michael Noer
Wednesday, November 3, 2010

There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. These are the 68 who matter.

We are fascinated by power. We stand in awe of those who apply it adroitly — and in fear of those who abuse it. We lust for power. Everyone would rather be a hammer than a nail.

The people on this list were chosen because, in various ways, they bend the world to their will. They are heads of state, major religious figures, entrepreneurs and outlaws. Comparing the relative power of such a diverse group is slippery business. To do it, we defined power in four dimensions. First, we asked if a person has influence over a lot of people. For heads-of-state we looked at population, for religious figures we measured the size of their flocks, for CEOs we counted their employees and for media figures we considered the size of their audience.

Second, we checked to see if they have significant financial resources relative to their peers. This meant comparing GDP for political leaders, net worth for billionaires and their ranking on the Forbes Global 2000 for CEOs. The Global 2000 lists the largest companies in the world based on a composite of market capitalization, assets, sales and profits.

Then we determined if they were powerful in multiple spheres, awarding bonus points for those who can project their power many ways. Silvio Berlusconi (No. 14), for instance, got a big boost for not only being the prime minister of Italy, but because he is also a billionaire media mogul who owns soccer team, AC Milan.

Finally we insisted that they actively wield their power. This eliminated some the richest people in the world, including Ingvar Kamprad, the billionaire founder of Ikea and the descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

[The World's Most Influential Players]

We culled an initial suspect list of over 100 names to 75 and then asked seven Forbes editors to rank them in all four categories. Those ranks were averaged to produce the final list. Obviously our rankings are not intended to be definitive; they are meant to spark a conversation, even an argument or two.

They certainly produced some surprises. The editors picked Hu Jintao, the president of the People's Republic of China as the world's most powerful man, ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama (No. 2). Julian Assange (No. 68), the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, snuck onto the list in last place, while many traditional media types, including Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC, fell off altogether. In a clear sign of the times, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (No. 40) ranked a full ten spots higher than Bill Keller (No. 50, the Executive Editor of the New York Times.

Power can be used for good or ill and three criminals made the list this year: al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden (No. 57), Joaquin Guzman (No. 60), the billionaire drug trafficker who heads Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar (No. 63), who runs a vast criminal enterprise in India and who is thought to have a hand in the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai which killed 174. These rankings are not meant to justify or glorify these odious men. They simply reflect reality.

#1 Hu Jintao

Age: 67
Title: President
Residence: Beijing
Country of citizenship: China

Paramount political leader of more people than anyone else on the planet; exercises near dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of world's population. Unlike Western counterparts, Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor Internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts. Recently surpassed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy both in absolute and purchasing power terms. Credible estimates have China poised to overtake U.S. as world's largest economy in 25 years — although, crucially, not on a per-capita basis. Creditor nation oversees world's largest reserves at $2.65 trillion — $1.5 trillion of which is in U.S. dollar holdings. Refuses to kowtow to U.S. pressure to change its exchange-rate regime. Heads world's largest army (in size). His handpicked successor, Xi Jinping, set to assume the presidency in 2012.

#2 Barack Obama

Age: 49
Title: President
Residence: Washington, DC
Country of citizenship: United States

Obama's Democrats suffered a mighty blow in U.S. midterm elections, with the president decisively losing support of the House of Representatives, and barely holding onto the Senate. It's quite a come-down for last year's most powerful person, who after enacting widespread reforms in his first two years in office will be hard-pressed to implement his agenda in the next two. He can take comfort in the fact that he remains commander-in-chief of world's largest, deadliest military, leader of world's largest (in spending) and most dynamic economy and holds the unofficial title of "Leader of the Free World."

#3 Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud

Age: 86
Title: King
Residence: Riyadh
Country of citizenship: Saudi Arabia

Absolute ruler of desert kingdom that contains the world's largest crude oil reserves, two holiest sites in Islam. State-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco has reserves of 266 billion barrels, or one-fifth of planet's known supply (worth $22 trillion at today's oil prices). Pushing for gradual social and legal reforms, while maintaining good relations with deeply conservative religious establishment. Ultimate succession unclear: 86-year-old king's official heir is 82-year-old Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. Established committee of senior princes to ensure smooth transition in the event both become incapacitated.

#4 Vladimir Putin

Age: 57
Title: Prime Minister
Residence: Moscow
Country of citizenship: Russia

Prime Minister still more powerful than his handpicked head-of-state, President Dmitry Medvedev. Former KGB officer will likely replace protÃ©gÃ© in 2012. In the meantime, has final say over one-ninth of Earth's land area, vast energy and mineral resources. Declared nuclear power has veto on U.N.'s Security Council. Russian government agency reported to have already registered web address Putin-2012.rf. On running again: "The president of the United States, Roosevelt, was elected four times in a row because it did not contradict the American Constitution" (September 2010).

#5 Pope Benedict XVI

Age: 83
Title: Pope
Residence: Vatican City
Country of citizenship: Germany

Highest earthly authority for 1.1 billion souls, or one-sixth of world's population. Staunch traditionalist deplores secularism, consumerism and moral relativism, unbending on birth control, gay marriage and ordination of female priests. Despite major gaffes (including lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying Bishop and quoting a 14th-century source that declared the only new things the prophet Mohammed brought were "evil and inhuman"), appears genuinely interested in healing old wounds. In September, not only became the first Pope to visit Westminster Abbey since the Protestant Reformation, but also shook hands with a clergywoman (another first). Widening sexual abuse scandal could undermine moral authority, but increasingly willing to tackle issue head on: "Forgiveness does not substitute for justice." Stylish: Has brought back traditional red, custom-made "pope shoes" and old-school Ecclesiastical headgear.

#6 Angela Merkel

Age: 56
Title: Chancellor
Residence: Berlin
Country of citizenship: Germany
Marital Status: Married

Most powerful woman on the planet. Chancellor of Germany oversees Europe's largest economy. Renowned free-market champion and favorite of big business, boasts nine public companies with annual sales in excess of $70 billion. In all, there are 57 German companies on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of the world's largest public companies, with aggregate sales of $1.7 trillion.

#7 David Cameron

Age: 43
Title: Prime Minister
Residence: London

Youngest British prime minister in 198 years is product of privilege: Eton, Brasenose College, Oxford; is descended (illegitimately) from King William IV. Hailed by some as the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, Cameron shares the Iron Lady's determination to slash government expenditures (defense, higher education), but as the leader of a coalition government he can ill-afford to repeat her brash divisiveness.

#8 Ben Bernanke

Age: 56
Title: Chairman
Residence: Washington, DC
Country of citizenship: United States

Some argue Fed's influence is at all-time high, given size of its burgeoning balance sheet ($2.3 trillion) relative to the underlying economy ($14.3 trillion). But Bernanke's options have waned since peak of the financial crisis. He now has essentially only one arrow left in his financial quiver: quantitative easing — in layman's terms, "printing money." He last employed the technique in 2008 and is widely expected to repeat the move this month. At least he's honest: "The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost."

#9 Sonia Gandhi

Age: 63
Title: President
Residence: New Delhi
Country of citizenship: India

Despite Italian birth, foreign religion (Roman Catholic) and political reluctance, Gandhi wields unequaled influence over 1.2 billion Indians. Recently elected to record fourth term as head of India's ruling Congress Party, cementing status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. Handpicked brainy Sikh economist Manmohan Singh (also a listee) as prime minister. Inspired choice: Singh universally praised as India's best prime minister since Nehru, ideally trained to lead the world's fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power into next decade. But Gandhi remains the real power behind the nuclear-tipped throne. Grooming 40-year-old son Rahul for prime minister role.

#10 Bill Gates

Age: 54
Title: Co-Chair
Source: Microsoft, self-made
Residence: Medina, WA
Country of citizenship: United States
Education: Dropout , Harvard University
Marital Status: Married
Children: 3

Selling charity raffle tickets is hard; coaxing tycoons to pledge half their fortunes to philanthropy is near impossible. Apparently no one told Gates. This year the Microsoft mogul, futurist and America's richest person strong-armed (with help from henchman Warren Buffett) 40 of the world's wealthiest to sign his "Giving Pledge," promising to donate the majority of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes. No longer the planet's richest person, but that's because he's given nearly $30 billion philanthropically. World's most influential charity tackles AIDS, tuberculosis, polio and funds famine-resistant crops to fight hunger. Worth $54 billion, Gates holds 70% of his wealth in investment fund Cascade, dabbling in everything from autos to hedge funds to trash collecting.

Source: Internet.

How to Change the World Without Going Broke

In a book called Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists, Courtney E. Martin argues that twenty-somethings have been unfairly labeled as entitled, self-absorbed, and apathetic. She says we’re just overwhelmed with all of our choices, including how to make a difference in the world. We have access to so much online, in school, and in our careers, that it’s not always easy to sort through everything. The good news, she writes, is that there are many ways to change the world, and they don’t require you to ruin your financial life in the process. I recently spoke with Martin about young activists and their options. Excerpts:

[In Pictures: 12 Money Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes]

What’s different about today’s generation of activists compared to older generations?

We're operating with completely different liberations and constraints. On the one hand, we are facing the most globalized, bureaucratic, complex world in which to make change—so many of the old methods of social change are no longer effective. On the other, we're blessed with some amazing new tools—the Internet being the most obvious.

For people who don’t have much extra money to travel or donate, how can they most effectively make a difference?

I think reflecting on where your biggest gifts meets the world’s deepest needs is the most important first step. Are you a talented baker? The maybe you can get involved in an organization feeds folks and figure out a way to contribute. Are you great at getting to know new, diverse people? Then maybe you can support older neighbors in your community who need people to socialize with on a daily basis. There are massive systemic issues that we have to face, but sometimes just making the world a kinder place for someone is tantamount to making a real difference.

Consumer spending can have a big impact on company behavior; do you have any advice for people who want to be smarter about the impact of their spending dollars?

Put your dollar where you heart is. Consumers have such power, both in our pocketbooks and in our more specific advocacy efforts, like contacting companies and expressing support or disgust with their labor practices or environmental policies. Think of the three corporations that are getting the most of your monthly paycheck. Do they deserve it? Do you have any flexibility in switching? Can you express appreciation or disdain for their policies?

[For more money-saving tips, visit the U.S. News Alpha Consumer blog.]

For people who want to pursue a career as an activist, how is that possible?Are there ways to make a living while also making a difference? Or do you have to accept a future of low-earnings and ‘do it anyway’?

One thing that all of the activists I interviewed made clear is that martyrs don't make very effective movers and shakers. If you're doing low-paying work that you hate, you're probably not very good at it. Instead, go after work that really fulfills you and the money will follow. Emily Abt left social work after realizing that she hated it, and instead, made a film about the welfare system. She didn't make much money doing either job, but she loved the latter so it didn't bother her, plus she was able to spread the word about a system that affects so many people's lives.

You talk with your parents about how when they were activists in the 60s, they really believed they were changing the world. Why is it harder for young people to believe that today?

I think that on a purely rational level, it is harder to make large, systemic change today. Things are more entrenched, ownership is more consolidated, wealth is in the hands of so few, compared to the masses. But I don't think we have to let the stagnancy all around us determine our actions. We have to live in the now, for sure, but we can strive towards a transformed future.

Kimberly Palmer is the author of the new book Generation Earn: The Young Professional’s Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back.

Source: Internet.

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