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by drivingmenuts 431 days ago
I'm pretty sure that people here in the US get married for emotional and spiritual reasons far more than they do for legal reasons.
1 comments

While I do get your point, marriage is so deeply ingrained into the legal and financial systems of the U.S. that I think many can't help but subconsciously attach these things that really should be independent.

Marriage unlocks a wide range of legal and financial benefits: access to a spouse’s health insurance, favorable tax treatment (like joint filing and estate tax breaks), and legal protections such as hospital visitation rights, inheritance without a will, and immigration sponsorship. It also affects Social Security, parental rights, and eligibility for things like pensions and veterans’ benefits. I mean, if you get married, in the States stuff is just all worked out automatically.

In many other countries, marriage is not attached to these things.

> In many other countries, marriage is not attached to these things.

Care to name one?

What you described is basically how marriage works in my corner of Europe.

In some European countries, for example, many of these protections are granted by physically living together, not by getting married.