Marriage and The Law

What is marriage? More importantly, who cares? And most importantly, should government use it's monopoly on force to "care?"

First, in support of a US Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman -- Does the state have a vested interest in marriages? I believe they do. They state cannot exist without people. If people stop procreating, there will be no state. So in that manner, the state does have a vested interest in promoting marriage? Absolutely. And in this case, the state clearly has an interest in promoting only marriage as between a man and a woman.

Does this mean that I'm claiming that no one will have babies if gays get married? Don't be silly. I'm saying that the state has a clear vested interest in supporting marriages that result in more citizens for the state.

In addition, there is no question that children raised in two-parent families (with a mother and father) are better citizens. There will be less criminals, plain and simple. There will be fewer drunks and drug abusers. There will be fewer suicides. Society will be better off if all children were raised by a mother and a father. In the name of general health and crime prevention, clearly the state has an interest in marriages between a male and a female.

But on the other side of the coin -- what business is it of the government? Does the government exist to promote itself? If people did stop procreating and government ceased to exist, why would that be a bad thing? If there are fewer suicides, certainly that is "better" for the state, but it is really a "health" issue? If you accept that it is, be prepared to head back to prohibition because of that whole "health" issue.

When this country was organized, it was a grand experiment. Part of that experiment was creating 50 unique, different "states" that could do whatever they wanted. The union of the states was for economic trade and defensive protection. Each state was supposed to be different -- that way if a person didn't like the society and laws in one state, they could go to another. But a federal marriage amendment would make the states more the same -- which is simply wrong.

When Ron Paul was recently asked at a debate whether he supported a Constitutional Amendment declaring marriage to be between a man and a woman, I really liked his answer. He said that shouldn't marriage be determined by religion? Wouldn't it be better if the church could decide marriage issues and the state simply had nothing to do with it?

Two people in Pennsylvania are claiming that now. They want to be married, but they don't belong to a church. So the state is denying them permission to be married. Who is the government to be the final arbitrator of who shall marry whom?

Legally, the only difference it makes to the state is for taxes and property. The state wants to charge different tax rates based on whether someone is legally married or not. That's easy to fix -- change the tax code so there's no information or anything related to marital status. Gee, the fair tax would do that nicely, wouldn't it?

The other issue where the state is concerned is related to property -- transfer of ownership, survivor rights, parental rights, etc. Currently, however, even marriage doesn't appear to be affecting this area today. How many children are born out of wedlock? Don't these children have parents? Doesn't the legal system have a clear way of identifying them and giving them access to the children at places like schools? And with inheritance, aren't there already massive issues and lawsuits regarding who gets what, even when there is a clear marriage and children? It seems like ANY laws regarding marriage today are already worthless -- so why is the state in the business of giving permission for people to be married?

It's not that I'm against marriage -- I absolutely think that marriage is between a man and a woman. Personally, I'll never acknowledge any other sort of marriage. But I'm not so sure the state should be in the business of making those rules.

Posted by: Ogre at 01:08 PM

Comments

Posted by: Lysol Pionex at September 28, 2007 02:17 AM (kUMvN)

Posted by: Ogre at September 28, 2007 11:34 AM (oifEm)

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