Let me ask a related and unpopular question: what purpose does marriage serve in today's world?
For people with religious convictions, I understand: your god(s) hate you if you have relationships not sanctioned by your religious authorities. I am specifically asking about secular people in the US and Europe, who choose to enter a contract with the government about their personal lives.
Is it taxes? It seems much easier to me to just make more money than to make "till death do us part" work.
For health insurance, domestic partnerships work closely enough. (This is a US-specific problem.)
It seems to me that most marriages occur because the wedding industry has done a phenomenal job of marketing itself. Many girls grow up dreaming about their weddings. Men, assuming that women want this, go along. With predictable results in the divorce rate.
Companionship and love have nothing to do with a piece of paper filed with the local government.
Contraception is, historically, a recent development. Without it, a man and a woman rather fond of each other tend to produce children; all involved, including society at large, have an interest in keeping those parents together - hence the institution of marriage. Strange how the obvious has been forgotten.
Very little. Even less with the acceptance and inevitable legality of same-sex marriage.
I cringe whenever it happens but this is one of those things the social right wing seems to be correct on. Marriage should be about giving legal protection to the relationship that best serves the raising of healthy children. How it gets twisted into a debate about equality I have never understood.
We should just abolish the institution altogether.
> Companionship and love have nothing to do with a piece of paper filed with the local government.
Commitment and accountability to the person how bears your children, or who supports you through medical school or your startup years, has everything to do with a piece of paper filed with the local government.
In Washington State, domestic partnerships do not exist unless you are over 65 or (until now) if you were gay and therefore inelegible to marry. To figure out what rights and benefits are available only to married people, you can probably go look at some of the groups arguing for the right to gay marriage - they usually have a list of what will be gained.
If you think that founding a start-up is tough, wait until you have children. Raising them (properly) is the toughest and most rewarding job that one can have...
Marriage is just a way that society found to keep both parties more committed into it.
For people with religious convictions, I understand: your god(s) hate you if you have relationships not sanctioned by your religious authorities. I am specifically asking about secular people in the US and Europe, who choose to enter a contract with the government about their personal lives.
Is it taxes? It seems much easier to me to just make more money than to make "till death do us part" work.
For health insurance, domestic partnerships work closely enough. (This is a US-specific problem.)
It seems to me that most marriages occur because the wedding industry has done a phenomenal job of marketing itself. Many girls grow up dreaming about their weddings. Men, assuming that women want this, go along. With predictable results in the divorce rate.
Companionship and love have nothing to do with a piece of paper filed with the local government.