I agree with you wholeheartedly that there are certainly benefits to having a relationship, i.e. companionship, your “better half,” helping you define your passions, etc. What I’m trying to say is that you don’t actually have to get married to do any of those things.

Marriage isn’t something I experienced myself, but lots of people I know say that things change once they got married, i.e. their view of the relationship and their life. I don’t really understand why that is so because technically marriage is a public and legal declaration that two people will be together. All the benefits (not talking tax implications or healthcare) are bestowed within the confines of a relationship, so what does marriage offer that a relationship doesn’t?

“Ah,” you say, “but you could just get a roommate, and if you move to a new town, you get a new roommate.”

This is true, but then you have less security. In cold economic terms, a loyal life companion will be there for you when you are sick, unemployed, etc. The trade-off is that, as a loyal life companion, you will have to be there for them in such circumstances.

In business terms, this presents greater risk of familial obligations and certain restraints on the choices you can make, but it also reduces the risk of completely catastrophic disruption. Emotional obligation as insurance premium.

In creative terms, constraints like a spouse who can not easily move to a new state / country can help provide some focus to what might otherwise be diffused creative passions.

Its not for everyone, sure, but there are a lot of reasonable benefits to marriage in the modern context. I suspect that in a generation or two the governance model will be more along the lines of household / family covenants or such: a long-term legal entity with better-described obligations and contingencies.