Marriage

In my opinion, marriage is very much still alive in America but it has changed and morphed into something different. In the past it was used for "the wrong reasons" because it was often more of a financial decision. That still exists today, but what we perceive as "love" does make a lot of these marriages happen. What keeps marriages alive in America is all of the benefits that it gives the couple, if it didn't give any do you seriously think the same amount of people would still marry? I somehow doubt it, but hey I could be wrong. It’s because of these benefits that marriage will always be part of the social fabric, it doesn't only benefit the couple but also its family. If you think about it, if it only benefits the couple and its family the government wouldn't support it as much, so if you would take a wild guess whether it benefits the government or not; you should guess yes and you'll be right. Should it be this way? Should marriage only be a display of love and commitment and nothing else? That sounds great but sounds a bit funny when I read it, that wouldn't work. Marriage should be a part of the social fabric, not only because for most people it is in fact a symbol of love and commitment, but because it just generally helps.

Rivera’s essay talks about temporary marriages, and whether they would reduce divorce rates or not and she says things I completely agree with. Some things would be, " Allowing couples to choose how long they should be married defeats the purpose of getting married at all." and "'temporary marriage' should not have been considered as a marriage in the first place." Although I agree with what she said I still think temporary marriages would reduce divorce rates. It doesn't matter what it should or shouldn't be called, or whether it defeats the purpose or not. I'm sure people would much rather wait for their marriage to expire than to go through all of the paperwork that comes with divorce. If they don't like each other, all they have to do is avoid each other and never renew their marriage: resulting in divorce rates dropping. I think creating temporary marriages would a good idea, I’m sure for some it would insulting to their religion even degrading and that’s fine. All they would do is ignore it and stick with their normal marriage. To those who aren't religious or just don't care, it would be helpful for them to at least have the option of a temporary marriage. This is only my opinion, I could be on target or way off the mark, but either way; I truly believe temporary marriages can drop divorce rates dramatically.