Why not abolish marriage certificates for everyone?

[CapnAwesome]

Monetary benefits for married people should definitely be outlawed. It's ridiculously unfair to reward people for getting married / having children when there are people who are perfectly happy being single and childless who may deserve that money more (and I say this as an engaged man who wants children).

That said, other benefits are worth having, such as the right to be your partner's next of kin, the right to handle their affairs if they are ill, etc. There are too many horror stories of married gay people who live in states which do not support gay marriage being denied access to their partners whilst they lie dying or critically injured in hospital.

I'm not married and I wouldn't want my next of life decisions being made by my immediate family. I'd much rather have my best friend make those decision. I think you can (or should be able to) give power of attorney to whomever you want.

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One thing I find humorously striking about Libertarians is their reductionist ideas.

You don't hear "let's minimize the differences between X and Y so we may consider removing something"

Instead you get grand standing statements like "Remove X" or "Abolish Y"

In the end run, it feels like you have a solution looking for a problem.

And the complex tax code seems a more pressing issue than the legal institution of marriage (which has substantial rules devoted to joining and splitting of shared property and resources).

I actually agree that libertarians are too idealistic, applying the same idea to everything regardless of the issue. I think there needs to be room for pragmatism and practicality within every ideology. Even though (or perhaps because) it's not the most popular term around here, I like to call myself a conservative.