Marriage proposal: Why not privatize?

[kweerwolf]

A fundamental problem with marriage is that it only comes in one size. As a legal relationship, matrimony is a monopoly product supplied by the government.

At the same time, however, as a personal relationship, the institution has unique, personal importance to those who partake of it. To some it even has deeply felt religious significance.

Thus, there is a mismatch between what is demanded of marriage and what is supplied. It is this imbalance that makes the prospect of same-sex unions a seemingly intractable problem.

Because there is only one legally sanctioned version of marriage, those who personally view homosexuality as a mortal sin (rightly or wrongly) are hostile to the prospect of sharing it with gay couples.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/22/ING6FGOLVA1.DTL

[xchrom]

1. a libertarian approach.

as long as no one does harm -- why not?

i have limits on what i find acceptable in the authors proposal.

but... i'm willing to consider it.