As the cultural and social power and significance of the institution of marriage starts to wear off, more people will start abusing it for the benefits. A lot a

As the cultural and social power and significance of the institution of marriage starts to wear off, more people will start abusing it for the benefits. A lot already are -- my friend was telling of a guy who divorced his wife in the papers purely to get tax benefits, even though they're still together as man and wife. Also conversely, another mate of mine was suggesting in complete seriousness to another friend of his that they should get married to get nice affordable housing benefits; both male (I mention they're both male because I think if the friends were male-female, social stigma would be stronger, but because they are old buddies from high school, this subject was discussed in a "hacking the system" mindset. It is very interesting to see that the institution of marriage is seeing its power drop, I think years ago people would absolutely gasp at someone doing this, now it's like "woah, cool trick, I'm gonna marry my friend and get in on this too!")