Bardalicious wrote:
gbaji wrote:
MDenham wrote:
So why not have these benefits be awarded upon actually producing the children?
Because then it wouldn't act as much of an incentive to get people to marry before producing children.
Why do they have to get married before?
The first (maybe second) good question of the thread!
Because statistically very few people get married after having a child together out of wedlock. Shockingly few. Even with divorce rates as high as they are today, it's a walk in the park compared to the likelihood of a single woman with a child getting the child's father to marry her.
Quote:
Your argument for the benefits of marriage hinge on the existence of children. Why not wait until the children actually exist before marrying people?
Because it doesn't work. That idea was pretty much abandoned back when man ceased to live primarily in small nomadic tribes.