In Defense of Marriage: A Modest Proposal

[substitute]

It is a fact generally acknowledged that the institution of marriage in the United States is troubled

Comments

YUMMY

[substitute]

KNIFE, FORK, SALT, PEPPER, AND UNSTOPPABLE RAGE OF THE PROLETARIAN AND/OR NERDS: READY!

Just askin'... not looking for a loophole.

[mcpino]

What about some of us poorer folk who wish/need to marry to acquire our spouse's medical insurance coverage/benefits, but one of us had a failed first marriage?

Re: Just askin'... not looking for a loophole.

[travisd]

Sounds like a good argument to fix access to healthcare, not use marriage as a band-aid (no pun intended).

Re: Just askin'... not looking for a loophole.

[substitute]

You're screwed. Sorry. Can't make an omelet without breaking eggs/lives.

[anonymous]

Your proposal suggests introducing discrimination in the form of additional taxes against people who want to get married more than once. Not everybody feels that having multiple marriages is necessarily and inherently "wrong" though, or even that multiple marriages is something that really needs to be discouraged. Personally, I don't see how permitting serial divorces and remarriages negatively affects society enough to care so much about discouraging it

[substitute]

If I'd meant any of this seriously, this would be the starting point of a great conversation. Since the sole intent was Swiftian satire, I'll just egotistically chalk one up to my mad skills.

[jactitation]

I like, but it should be a proportion of individual assets rather than a fixed amount. Donald Trump could marry 16 times with no noticable effect, while this would prevent poor folks from using marriage as a way to deal with health insurance, debt, or children's inheritance.

(Do you notice that I'm totally taking you seriously? I am. But I still think that we should provincialize marriage and make it an artifact of the supernatural religion brokers, and have separable contracts for all other aspects.)

[darkuncle]

underneath that crust of cynical humor lies a surprisingly insightful mind. I could not be more different from many of your friends and followers, but I think you have a very interesting idea here.

of course, all attempts - no matter how clever - to substitute legislation for personal responsibility (which is what the divorce rate, and virtually all other societal ills, really boils down to) are going to fail to solve the problem in the end, but I think yours has a better shot than most.

[substitute]

You may think you're different from the rest of them, but we're all nerds! NERDS! NERRDDSSSSSSSS

The core of a good "modest proposal" is to have just enough truth and practicality in it to get the payload through. :)

[darkuncle]

well, it kind of goes without saying that we're all big nerds around here. :)