Two straight Canadian men to marry each other

[andrewducker]

There's an article here about two straight men who have noticed that there's a significant tax break for married couples - and are planning to take advantage of it.

Which, I think, just goes to show, that if you allow people to do things for one reason, they'll do it for their own reasons too.  Or as William Gibson once said "The Street finds its own uses for things."

How long, one wonders, until marriage is broken down, and you get to form your own contract using a CC-style choose-your-own-license?

I would like {Insert Name Here} to (a)inherit all my worldly goods (b)have power of attorney (c)love, honour and obey me (delete as applicable)

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

It seems likely that in civilized nations (ie the US will either not go this way or will take several additional decades to do so) marriage will either be replaced by such a contract or will become such a contract. The entire idea of marriage as a special set of rights limited to only specific types of relationships seems fairly antithetical to free and diverse societies. When birth control and easy divorce became basic civil rights and both men and women working outside the home became fully accepted, traditional marriage was essentially doomed. We are now seeing the results and I am very pleased. OTOH, in the US, you also predictably have a reactionary backlash in the form of idiocies like "covenant marriage"</a.

[andrewducker]

You always have reactionaries - I usually look on them as a good sign that society is moving in the right direction.

And yes, I'd hope you're right - things will hopefully move towards a much more fluid society. The slow bit is actually likely to be those companies that offer "Health benefits for you and your spouse" and the like.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Health benefits are another reason I expect marriage to die/alter faster outside of the US. In the US or any other nation where citizens must take care of their own health costs, insurance coverage becomes very tricky for poly-families and suchlike. OTOH, this is a complete non-issue in any nation where the government provides health insurance.