Their romantic partner offering lots of value in other ways. I’m skeptical of this one because female partners are typically notoriously high maintenance in money, attention, and emotional labor. Sure, she might be great in a lot of ways, but it’s hard for that to add up enough to outweigh the usual costs.
Assuming arguendo this is true: if you care primarily about sex, hiring sex workers is orders of magnitude more efficient than marriage. Therefor the existence of a given marriage is evidence both sides get something out of it besides sex.
If both partners have an income, then living together is usually cheaper than each of them living alone, and sex is just a bonus to that. How would sex workers be the cheaper alternative?
Making no claim about the actual value of each, but can’t I counter your specific argument by saying, marriage is a socially enforced cartel for sex, and if they could do so without being punished, a lot more men would rather not get sex without getting married?
Assuming arguendo this is true: if you care primarily about sex, hiring sex workers is orders of magnitude more efficient than marriage. Therefor the existence of a given marriage is evidence both sides get something out of it besides sex.
If both partners have an income, then living together is usually cheaper than each of them living alone, and sex is just a bonus to that. How would sex workers be the cheaper alternative?
Possibly true if one size has zero income.
Making no claim about the actual value of each, but can’t I counter your specific argument by saying, marriage is a socially enforced cartel for sex, and if they could do so without being punished, a lot more men would rather not get sex without getting married?