I think it is much more expensive to be a man in this world than it is to be a woman. And I think one of the biggest reasons is because men often foot most of the bill when it comes to dating and marriage.

For all the talk of a pink tax that women pay, we need to start talking about the relationship tax that men pay.

For example,

  • Men have to buy nicer cars because they are judged based on how nice of a car they have. At a certain age this extends to their house or apartment.

  • They pay for food, for dates, for entertainment, and for bills. Even when we talk about "going Dutch", it usually only extends so far, and eventually the man has to start picking up a larger share of the tab as the relationship progresses.

  • If the relationship becomes serious enough, they end up paying for rent, a mortgage, and for most of the expenses related to child care.

  • In the event of a divorce, they have to pay attorney fees, give up half their possessions, and then start paying alimony and child support. In many states this is in addition to their share of the child care costs that they pay already (if they're lucky enough to gain custody). A fact that sometimes makes having custody financially prohibitive.

  • To add salt to the wound, men qualify for fewer forms of financial assistance than women. In the case of alimony / child support, a man's effective income can be well below the poverty level. But they often don't qualify for welfare because their pre-support income is too high. Meanwhile the recipients of that support can still qualify for welfare because that income isn't taken into account.

In addition I think there are non-monetary expenses that men often pay, usually in the form of emotional abuse and physical labor.

I'm not saying that relationships are all bad or anything but I do think this is a problem that we often don't talk about in society.