>For years sociologists have argued over why couples split up and what policies should be put in place to try to coax couples into getting married or keeping th

>For years sociologists have argued over why couples split up and what policies should be put in place to try to coax couples into getting married or keeping them married. (This is not just meddling; an intact family is widely considered to be a sound unit on which to build a society, so governments have an incentive to try and keep them together.) Um, this paragraph was jaw-dropping to me. People think it is ok for the state to manipulate the personal lives of citizens like that? People think that incentives/punishments that keep people pushed to stay in unhappy/unhealthy marriages is a good thing? Even the statistical conclusion seems absurd. People who only stay in marriages because of incentives will not have the same effect as "a sound unit on which to build a society"; I would actually suspect the opposite