People are afraid of marriage due to the extremely high rate of divorce.

Medical visitation and decision rights. If we can somehow find a way to easily secure those without having to be a relative or a spouse, then marriage can quietly fade into obscurity in my opinion.

marriage has historically been a financial arrangement, not so much between individuals as between households and even dynasties. in the past couple centuries people have changed their thinking about it to include the concept of love between the individuals involved, which wasn't COMPLETELY new (or shakespeare wouldn't resonate) but as an overall view of the institution it is certainly new. at the same time, the church (you know which church) had taken it over as, somehow, their own business, and it retains that stranglehold to a huge extent.

the tax system (assuming we actually have something we can legitimately call a system) discriminates in some ways against the single and in other ways against the partnered. this needs to change. don't look at me; i faint when i see numbers. i can recognize a problem when i see one, though.

all my life i equated marriage with prostitution because of the traditional woman's role in the arrangement. it was basically an agreement that in exchange for being supported financially, the woman would give services that included, without by any means being limited to, sex. however, the idea of a life partner was an appealing one. love! who can argue with love? who can argue with wanting to be with your lover forever, with or without the piece of paper? now i am old, and i was getting old by the time i found my love, too. i still view traditional marriage as i did when i was young, but i don't think that we can necessarily judge people by how traditional their marriages LOOK. we're not walking in their bedroom slippers. i know it sure wouldn't be right for me. i am my own person and i don't want to be mr's, which is what missus means. i want him to be mine as much as i am his, and we should still be our own people, with conjoined and combined interests both economic and otherwise. we also want to have legal standing in each other's affairs, and yes we've made out wills and directives, but sometimes medical staff don't refer to those right away. i have been turned away trying to find out how is was when he had to be hospitalized. that's changing slowly too. there is more but you get the picture.

we're not married yet. we're poor and disabled, and we'd lose some crucial benefits if we married. did i mention a tax overhaul? not just taxes (and not trump's way, thank you).

so as an institution, is marriage outdated? which institution do you mean, among those i mentioned or others you can think of, all called (and honored in some way) as marriage? yes, no, maybe!

g

I think it's outdated. I was just in a long term relationship where I felt just as committed as I was when I was married.

It may be outdated but I hope not.One reason is because people do not like to commit to marriage due to the extremely high cost of divorce ,but when you do not have a marriage people give up on relationships to easily .Look what we have, a deteriorating society, no family unit ,one parent homes ,children with absentee fathers or mothers no role models .

Breeding?? Women don’t breed

That all depends on how you look at it. Many people who get married do so with the knowledge of never having children, so for some it is a commitment to the other, that they are special and that one wants to tell the world about it.

In UK you can have a civil partnership, so not frilly white frock or anything. It provides all the legal security without the pomp. My partner and I have spoken about that. Having done the whole marriage thing twice, I don't think its for me

Its (in its basic form) is just an announcement of people declaring their love and commitment.. I don't think it will ever go away .. it will change and morph into something different, but we humans will still use it.

Human beings lived for 1000 of years without needing to get hitched. Marriage was virtually always about ownership and joining families together. The love stuff is actually very recent. I think as we mature as a species, we'll need these ceremonies less. Saying that, I am always available for sewing frilly white frocks .