Great post and effort put in. UPVOTED and RESTEEMED! Marriage is a very funny thing especially nowadays. When I speak to my Mom about marriage she actually advocates against it, which is funny. She tells me how financially it doesn't make much sense. That her and my Dad would be a lot better off if they had split their finances and still chose to live together and raise me and my brother as a family. So I think it goes back to tradition and of course religion. People got married because it was well, an excuse to have sex with your wife, and not be considered a piece of shit haha. I think in today's society getting married symbolizes responsibility and "old-fashioned, 'Conservative' values" but the utility of it does not really hold up with today's moral standards and norms. There are so many people that have children that are married and live together and it doesn't make much of a difference in their day-to-day lives whether the two people are wearing rings or not. They could easily be doing the same exact thing without rings on or being legally married. Originally I think the spirit of it was to preserve the family so that men could not just go around having children, leaving women pregnant and with out a way to protect themselves and the baby during those, not only nine months, but the following few years. Nowadays I think marriage is good, in fact great for some people, but for others I think that they shouldn't get married. The reason I believe this is because people get married and get divorced and I don't think that divorce is a good thing especially when children are involved. I feel like it would be much healthier to simply have a religious ceremony if you like, change your last name to all have the same last name so as to conform to school norms etc. but otherwise when it comes to the IRS being married is just a legal contract that combines your assets and makes it difficult to break the contract leading to what I believe is overall unhappiness in those parties who could easily just choose to raise children together and live in different houses or different rooms of the same house. I don't think being married is the right thing to do anymore I think it is the expected thing to do. Men are expected to propose to Women, Women are expected to want to be married, especially before having children, and it's those external expectations that sort of force people into a situation that is neither beneficial for them or for their families. If you want to show your commitment have a religious ceremony, change your last name, live together, act as if you are married because, you are in the eyes of the Lord, but don't sign the government contract, it is only a way to pay more taxes and to make your life a living hell should you ever decide or realize that you're no longer in love with each other. But by all means have a wedding. Just don't sign that stupid contract! Keep your values and your wages! Have two heads of household instead of one. Get accepted because you didn't combine your assets. Set up trusts for private property and a joint bank account for bills. Do everything right but a contract is just a contract, God knows what is in your heart, love does not change because of a ring and if it does, run!