Reply #64: Well - half don't fail. And when they do fail children are protected.

[yellowcanine]

True not all marriages result in children. But many do and so far society hasn't come up with a better way to protect children than marriage. Why do something that we know from our knowledge of human nature will just make things worse? So we can predict with some certainty an even higher rate of failure for multiple marriages. Wouldn't it be better to study more WHY marriages fail and try to address those issues? We haven't even tried seriously to study what could be done BEFORE marriage to make it more likely that marriages would succeed. I think we SHOULD make it more difficult for people to get married so we know they really mean it. And maybe have a probationary period of some period of time - after which the marriage could continue or be annulled - "no fault". After the probationary period it would be harder to get a "no fault" divorce. Absent abuse, abandoment or serial infidelity couples would have to submit to mandatory counseling before a divorce would be granted. The cost of the counseling could be subsidized with funds collected from higher marriage license fees. Just some ideas.