[helpfulclippy]

> I'd advise the friend of yours to create a relationship their spouse wants to be in. That's how you prevent the downsides of alimony.

This is simply not true. Your spouse has free will, and can use that free will to make marriage-ending decisions, no matter what you do.

[chrsig]

of course -- read literally, it's not true. I just left a comment[0] that clarifies what my intent to convey was. tldr: it lowers the probability of divorce.

one person can't reduce that chance to zero, because as you mentioned, the other person very much has free will.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32204289