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The article misses the entire point of civil marriage in the first place, which is to provide incentives for a structure historically seen as positive for socie
by mdesq 14y ago
The article misses the entire point of civil marriage in the first place, which is to provide incentives for a structure historically seen as positive for society, not to give individual people what they want. We provide (dis)incentives for all kinds of activities, of which marriage is one. Charitable giving and smoking are a couple other areas we try to nudge behavior with tax policy.
The authors are people in one sphere of society saying they don't like laws that incentivize behavior that is different from their own. But nevertheless, they are making a conscious choice (even with information about the additional economic costs etc.) to remain unmarried, which includes associated costs and everything else that comes with that choice.
In their case, we all win in one sense. Society gets some additional tax revenues to support social services, and the authors get something they prefer instead: singleness.
Not all of our preferred behaviors are given incentives by the government; only the ones considered compelling and in the public interest. Civil marriage primarily exists for the state; not really for you.
Note: Sure, there are good and interesting arguments about the social value of civil marriage, whether or not it should even exist, and if so, in what form. I'm not going there. I'm just pointing out that the authors are making a conscious economic decision and are disappointed that they pay an added price.
- kscaldef 14y agoI'm not sure how you can say that "the article misses the entire point" when the third paragraph is entirely devoted to addressing it.
- mdesq 14y agoThey didn't address it in the slightest. They mentioned "social good" in a sentence and then demonstrated that they either didn't understand what that meant or decided to completely ignore it by then talking mostly about individual happiness. Society is more affected by your behavior and your drain on its resources than by how happy you feel.
- jianxioy 14y agoAgree. I was drowning in the flood that was the authors' self-entitlement.
- tomjen3 14y agoWe do not exist for the benefit of the state, the state exists for the benefit of the people. Stop using tax resources to discriminate based on lifestyle choices.
- csense 14y agoLet's suppose hypothetically, for the sake of argument, that numerous careful, politically neutral scientific studies have been conducted, and they reveal that children who grow up in two-parent homes have significantly better outcomes -- fewer suffer abuse and neglect; on average they get better grades; they have more education and get better jobs; they live longer, healthier and happier lives. Let's suppose these studies correctly controlled for all conceivable other variables like race, income level, education, profession, etc. Don't we owe it to those children to make sure that as many as possible are born into two-parent families? Isn't a financial incentive to marry a great way to balance society's interest in maximizing the well-being of its future citizens in this way, while still allowing its citizens who desire alternative lifestyles the freedom to do so? I have no idea whether real studies have been conducted that are similar to my hypothetical ones. But based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence, and without knowledge of scientific evidence to the contrary, it seems reasonable to me to assume that heterosexual two-parent families generally have better outcomes.
- nichtich 14y agoThen let's suppose there's a study that shows children who grow up in a rich family grow up healthier and happier and have better education and better jobs. Don't we owe it to those children to make sure that as many as possible are born into rich families? Raising children as single parents is already hard enough, a financial disincentive for them will only make matters worse.
- tomjen3 14y agoNot really. At most, we should give incentives to those who marry and have children.