Marriage

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Well thought out analysis that unfortunately sidesteps the polygamy issue. Why shouldn't people be allowed to game the system by having multiple "social partnerships"?

Thanks for the reply but I think that polygamy would be a legitimate use of the system. Personally I don't see what it is about multiple-person marriage that would warrant our having the government limit our freedom to protect us from it.

Another good follow-up would concern who could enter into such a 'social partnership' (that's only a working title.) The same general constraints that exist for contracts and corporations would imply that the persons have to be human beings that have not been legally judged to be mentally incompetent, and a minimum age requirement would also be implied by those comparisons as well as by reference to statutory rape/molestation laws. I would expect those areas to come up for discussion if this thread were to advance. It gets into some significant issues for libertarians.

But my primary goal was to lay out my thinking and see if the self-styled libertarians think it conflicts with libertarian political theory, and how.

Originally posted by sh76
Is there anyone on this board who thinks that the government SHOULD be in the business of sanctioning "marriages"?

sanctioning, no. registering, yeah. like car titles.

Originally posted by JS357
Thanks for the reply but I think that polygamy would be a legitimate use of the system. Personally I don't see what it is about multiple-person marriage that would warrant our having the government limit our freedom to protect us from it.

Another good follow-up would concern who could enter into such a 'social partnership' (that's only a working title.) The ...[text shortened]... the self-styled libertarians think it conflicts with libertarian political theory, and how.

i guess lawyers are not really in charge in the USA. or they'd legalize polygamy. imagine the divorce fees available!