One thing often cited by conservatives, libertarians, and some liberals that are tired of arguing is the need for the government to 'get out' of marriage. In their delusional minds, this wraps up the somehow contentious issue of same-sex marriage quite nicely.
To sort things out quite concisely, let's revisit what marriage is.
Marriage is a contract, or perhaps more accurately a template of a contract, between two people that has consequences across many nations laws. Not only do nearly all countries have marriage, but nations respect each other's definitions of marriage to a certain extent. The universality and portability of this concept is central to its usefulness and efficiency.
Marriage impacts:
To sort things out quite concisely, let's revisit what marriage is.
Marriage is a contract, or perhaps more accurately a template of a contract, between two people that has consequences across many nations laws. Not only do nearly all countries have marriage, but nations respect each other's definitions of marriage to a certain extent. The universality and portability of this concept is central to its usefulness and efficiency.
Marriage impacts:
- Child custody
- Insurance
- Earned income calculations
- Retirement / social welfare benefits
- Immigration status
- Obligations to partner
- ... and more...
For government to "get out of marriage" to satisfy some mindless faustian philosophical bargain between "classical liberals", libertarians, social conservatives and wannabe theocrats, all laws would necessarily need to be edited to remove the M-word, and institute a new policy that does exactly the same thing for all practical purposes.
For a specific example, if the American government were to get "out of marriage" tomorrow, then every American citizen would not be able to emigrate to another country with their spouse without creating a shadow marriage with some mix of other legally binding documents. No foreign state or even domestic institution is going to accept a napkin marriage certificate from the First Church of Liberty Lamenters as something held as a legally binding document, so there will be a startup industry of pointless lawyers typing up 2-person corporations in Microsoft Word.
What is the difference between a libertarian and a social justice warrior?
A social justice warrior wants to spend their weekend writing up a Code of Conduct for their Doctor Who cosplay conference.
A libertarian wants to spend their wedding night writing a unique 18 page contract as to who gets the Tupperware upon divorce.