- Joined
- Nov 6, 2007
- Messages
- 64,731
- Reaction score
- 27,933
- Location
- Rolesville, NC
- Gender
- Female
- Political Leaning
- Moderate
If there are no tax and benefits attached to marriage you would be right. If all government support of all married couples is stopped, then that changes the argument. But that is unfortunately not the case.
The tax and benefits tied to marriage are not huge at all, and in fact can be taxes on marriage itself and punishments. For instance, being married can prevent a person from being able to testify against a spouse that they know has done something wrong. It can cause some problems when it comes to debt. It can tie a person legally to another person's family, which then could reflect negatively on them, even if they have very little contact with their inlaws.
It still comes to the fact that we give incentives, including tax incentives for things that we view as benefiting society. Marriages, even non-child bearing marriages benefit society. Many studies have been done on this. But considering how little the majority of couples actually gain from this benefit they give, it really cannot be how you want to believe it is.