It is a damn shame that relationship skills and knowledge based on well-established research aren't taught in school as a core subject. Our lives would have been much better for it.

"Please respect the truism that if you have a great career and a crappy marriage you will be unhappy, but if you have a great marriage and a crappy career you will be happy."

This may be true, but it complete ignores the alternative of being single. And if you have a crappy career and a great marriage now, that crappy career and the financial problems it may bring might eventually affect the marriage too.

Disclaimer: I'm single. A few bad relationships were enough for me!

is it? marriage in the US for example is what we would call "official marriage on paper". people just as easily like together or not but remain boyfriend/girlfriend for years, even having kids because why not.

For these people, getting married is officiating something that doesnt need it or going through legal hoops.

in other countries, getting married is basically the only way you can "officially" or socially acceptable manner of being even in contact with the other person, not to talk about "having kids before marriage". "bastard" is still being used in india to refer to a child not born out of wedlock as a type of slader and here you talk about "what matters more".

To be happy, a happy marriage matters. There, more precise, I think being single is the flat threshold, a happy marriage will increase the happiness in the happy-life-chart, a bad one however, will be much worse than being single.