Most people are fundamentally dissatisfied because they lack creative and meaningful work, they don't feel valued in what they do, they have no control over their working environment, and they feel subordinated. Equally, the overarching economics of society are increasingly working against the average person. It's harder for me to talk about the States, but if you're growing up now in the UK, if you're sixteen years old, unless you're going to inherit money then the deck is stacked against you. It's hard enough for people of my generation.

People then take out their lack of fulfilment on one another; it is just a form of emotional transposition and attribution error. And then eventually they break up, thinking that they'll find something better and that their relationship is the source of their dissatisfaction, without addressing the fundamental underlying issues.

This is the cause of most problems in relationships. At any time there are complex dynamics taking place over issues such as money and how it should be spent, work, shared interests (or lack of them), children, other family members, friends and your relationships with them, habitual behaviour, and differing motivations, values, opinions and worldviews. These are just a few that come to mind, but I'm sure there are many others. These are magnified by the fact that most people are not happy with where they are in life; at best it's tolerable.

And above all else, people feel tied together by financial necessity, rather than choosing to be together. Many couples feel that they would be worse off on their own, even though they're not happy. They feel bound together by fiscal pressures, and this just increases the resentment they feel towards one another, and indeed increases the argumentative nature of the relationship.

Ultimately, relationships fail because many people are in no fit state to have healthy relationships. This is a far bigger problem in relationships than gender dynamics.

Agree / disagree below.