Progress...

[Tiberius]

Maybe. Never thought I'd hear you argue to making people pay more taxes.

I'm not, I'm suggesting people pay equal taxes.

Spouses get first dibs where I live, regardless of a will. Might be different in the UK.

Well then I would pass a law that meant the will is always looked at, and in the case where a marriage can be argued successfully (i.e. the courts are presented with evidence that two people lived together as a married couple) then the absence of the will would let spouses "get first dibs".

So we can pay even more to insurance companies? No thanks.

How would you be paying more?

Oh ho ho, I bet the do Adrian, I bet they do.

I'm studying for a degree in Information Security...I really doubt it.

Your main problem here is that you are part of a small minority who thinks marriage should work this way. Everyone else doesn't think it's a very good idea. Also, over the course of two threads dealing with this subject you still never have answered the legal kinship part of the equation with anything that would work in the real world.

With all due respect, I have answered the legal kinship part of the equation; I've simply shown that it doesn't need to exist in the first place.

Um, totally wrong, Adrian. Actually, an absurd analogy. If you decide to buy a new computer you don't have to divorce the old one first. Your old computer will not be seeking alimony nor will there be a nasty custody fight over your DVDs.

I was under the impression we were talking about property rights, as in "who owns what". Where did divorce come into it? I never intended the "computer" to be analogous for a "wife"; I intended the "computer" to be analogous for any type of actual property. If you agree to joint ownership of things, you should make it known in some official way; otherwise, it is the property of the person who bought it (discounting gifts, etc).

Divorce in "my" society would be handled in the same way break ups are handled in real life between unmarried couples. Unmarried couples do all the things that married couples do; they buy houses together, they have children, they share incomes, etc. The only difference is that when they separate, there isn't a ridiculous amount of legislation to go through in order to sort things out. If there are any disagreements, they are sorted out by the courts.