While We're At It, Give Marriage a Bailout

Recession, laws making it more expensive, so make nuptials easier

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted Feb 3, 2009 3:00 PM CST

(Newser) – Between the recession and various legal knots, it’s no wonder so many Americans are eschewing marriage, Mark Penn writes in the Wall Street Journal. Either go with the bailout flow and revamp tax codes and the like to make marriage easier and less financially constrictive, or use similar tactics to make life easier for “committed cohabiters…the fastest-growing kind of household in the US.”

Among the marriage-stimulus ideas: tax breaks, “yes-fault divorce,” and a spouse holiday like Mother’s Day. “Make 25 the golden anniversary. And for those who make it to 50 years, hell, give them the Hope Diamond,” Penn writes. Alternatively, marketers and politicians can embrace cohabitation and lift the societal barriers that make life, and death, difficult for partners.

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More couples are opting to say "'til life drives us apart." (Shutterstock)

Just as Americans expect to hold more jobs nowadays, they anticipate multiple partners over time. (Shutter stock)

Americans are still pairing up for the long haul, but fewer see marriage as the way to do it. (Shutterstock)

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If marriage was meant to be 'til death do us part,' cohabitation is a little more like 'til life drives us apart.' - Mark Penn

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While We're At It, Give Marriage a Bailout