“if marriage is a key ingredient to retirees’ financial well-being, shouldn’t we talk about it?” Yes, but not to promote marriage. Marriage was necessary when people couldn’t easily have sex, children or a live-in partner, and women couldn’t support themselves and lost jobs when they married. Those days are over. No one needs to marry anymore. The problem is we still have policies in play that encourage the antiquated breadwinner-homemaker model. And, of course, we have policies that bestow 1,100 perks and privileges to people once they wed. Why? People should not get perks and privileges based on their romantic/sexual life; they should get help for their care-giving duties, which all of us will need/perform at some point in our life. https://aeon.co/ideas/marriage-should-not-come-with-any-social-benefits-or-privileges
“if marriage is a key ingredient to retirees’ financial well-being, shouldn’t we talk about it?” Yes, but not to promote marriage. Marriage was necessary when people couldn’t easily have sex, children or a live-in partner, and women couldn’t support themselves and lost jobs when they married. Those days are over. No one needs to marry anymore. The problem is we still have policies in play that encourage the antiquated breadwinner-homemaker model. And, of course, we have policies that bestow 1,100 perks and privileges to people once they wed. Why? People should not get perks and privileges based on their romantic/sexual life; they should get help for their care-giving duties, which all of us will need/perform at some point in our life. https://aeon.co/ideas/marriage-should-not-come-with-any-social-benefits-or-privileges