Some guys have multiple children and live with ther childs mother for 10+ years

[Brokenbad]

But won't marry her...

Wtf?

I just don't understand. If you live in the same house with your "girlfriend" or "fiance" of several years and several children, why don't you just marry the broad?

You were doomed a long time ago, what hurts to make it official?

[jasonluckydog]

They get half.

[mmmbeans]

maybe they're gay and on tv?

[g5jamz]

I blame no-fault divorce.

The minute he does marry...she can simply claim no-fault divorce and get half of his pension/401k/etc from the time they married to the time she decides to divorce him. Right now...he's choosing to do the right thing, but alimony/child support/etc is a lot more post-divorce than it is post-breakup.

Oh...and also...a lot of POS families do that crap to keep their household income down so that the woman can draw extra money from the government through welfare/food stamps/etc.

[mmmbeans]

and sometimes people just don't care about getting married.

[HoFBound90]

Had an uncle who did that, well it was 9 years together anyway. He was just terrified of comitment...even though he was basically comitted. Great "fiancee" and father to his family though. We could never really figure it out

[Davidson Deac II]

I blame no-fault divorce.

The minute he does marry...she can simply claim no-fault divorce and get half of his pension/401k/etc from the time they married to the time she decides to divorce him. Right now...he's choosing to do the right thing, but alimony/child support/etc is a lot more post-divorce than it is post-breakup.

Oh...and also...a lot of POS families do that crap to keep their household income down so that the woman can draw extra money from the government through welfare/food stamps/etc.

Depends on the state they live in, but in most they can get that anyway if they live together for that length of time.

[Happy Panther]

Marriage is an arbitrary union forced upon us by society

[pantherfan49]

The legal transactional costs to undo a marriage are significant, in fact those costs act as a deterrent to keeping people unhappily married.

[mmmbeans]

Marriage is an arbitrary union forced upon us by society

how is marriage arbitrary?

[davos]

This seems normal :)

[cookinwithgas]

If they both are OK with it what's the problem?

I just like being married to the woman I love and expressing that commitment even though I am not religious - it makes her happy and lets her know I'm not going anywhere. Others have different ideas on the subject and thats great!

[Kitten Diver]

As long as they are no tax burden to us who cares how they live their life? People just need to mind thur own damn business.