[quote=briansd1][quote=jpinpb] Society in general pushes for it.
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That’s the key here. That’s why I say that marriage is coercive.

For social advancement you need to get married.

Arnold needed to get married to become governor. Maria wanted a trophy husband as much as Arnold wanted a trophy wife in a well-connected political family.

Charles and Diana needed to get married. Charles needed it to become king and assure continuity for the monarchy. Diana did it for social advancement.

I think that Diana was very childish and irresponsible. She should have swallowed her pride and played along to gain the advantage of becoming queen. But she behaved like a low-class guest on Oprah.

Of course, regular folks are not as compelled to get married. But still, to more easily advance in society, you need to get married

Married people get more days off. They are allowed to leave early to deal with family problems, etc..

Unmarried employees will be believed to be gay. And we all know that married folks discriminate against single folks. It’s true in the private workplace, true in government, and true in the military.

Because society pushes for marriage, people do to it to gain the advantages of marriage. Love and fidelity are the idealistic aspects of marriage, not the practical, business-like part.

People may not admit it to themselves, but social benefits is what marriage is all about. That’s what the institution of marriage was designed for.
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This is true to some extent but (1) this pressure is declining over time, and (2) it varies significantly by geography. For example, for a guy to be single and never-married in southern California is really no big deal. It’s fairly common. Now, in the Southeast, outside of major metropolitan areas… there’s real pressure to get hitched by 30 or it’s assumed you’re a gaymosexual, with all of the limitations that entails. But, here in SoCal, I think there’s very little pressure to marry relative to other parts of the country.