“Doesn’t work well” by what metric—having children? I don’t see why that should be the predominant consideration. I have many other goals when I go into relationships—enjoyment, companionship, self-improvement, security, signalling, etc. Now that people are much wealthier and have fewer children, the relative importance of hard-to-breach contracts has decreased, and it’s plausible that for many people, moving even further towards flexible contracts is better for most of their goals.
I don’t think there’s any alternative. The reason that these contracts used to be hard to breach was mainly because of social norms—otherwise you could just leave and live in sin with someone else any time you wanted. But weaker contracts are only possible because the relevant social norms have changed. (Although there are probably some communities which take marriage much more seriously, and you could live there if you wanted to).
Then there are changes re who gets child custody, but it seems to me that having consistent legal judgements based on what’s best for the kids is better than allowing some people to opt into more extreme contracts.
Another factor is laws around property ownership, but I think that even though the laws have weakened, opting in to prenups is a sufficient solution for anyone who wants stronger commitments. They have clauses changing property allocations depending on who’s “at fault” for the divorce, right? (Although I guess I’m against prenups which specify custody arrangements, except insofar as they turn out to be good for kids).
“Doesn’t work well” by what metric—having children? I don’t see why that should be the predominant consideration. I have many other goals when I go into relationships—enjoyment, companionship, self-improvement, security, signalling, etc. Now that people are much wealthier and have fewer children, the relative importance of hard-to-breach contracts has decreased, and it’s plausible that for many people, moving even further towards flexible contracts is better for most of their goals.
But the current trend is to ban hard-to-breach contracts for everyone, even those who want them...
I don’t think there’s any alternative. The reason that these contracts used to be hard to breach was mainly because of social norms—otherwise you could just leave and live in sin with someone else any time you wanted. But weaker contracts are only possible because the relevant social norms have changed. (Although there are probably some communities which take marriage much more seriously, and you could live there if you wanted to).
Then there are changes re who gets child custody, but it seems to me that having consistent legal judgements based on what’s best for the kids is better than allowing some people to opt into more extreme contracts.
Another factor is laws around property ownership, but I think that even though the laws have weakened, opting in to prenups is a sufficient solution for anyone who wants stronger commitments. They have clauses changing property allocations depending on who’s “at fault” for the divorce, right? (Although I guess I’m against prenups which specify custody arrangements, except insofar as they turn out to be good for kids).