Quote: (09-05-2012 03:04 PM)Timoteo Wrote:
Quote: (09-05-2012 02:57 PM)basilransom Wrote:
Quote: (09-05-2012 02:46 PM)Timoteo Wrote:
What I appreciate is that the posters to Donlak's piece challenged him also. He took a specific topic, marriage, and gave a generic "something bad can happen to you any day you leave the house" answer as to why men should marry. You have to do better than that - you have to lay out what you think the benefits are. Saying "real alphas don't fear marriage" doesn't really provide a solid argument for his position.
The problem isn't risk. It's risk without any payoff. There's a huge cost to never getting in cars, or to never leaving your house.
The question is - what is the cost to not getting married? If you don't want kids, I see none at all.
Personally, I'd like to raise children at some point, and I don't see any good alternative to marriage for that. That aside, I see no reason to get married.
Raising children is the ONLY reason I can see getting married. I think we should try to give kids a shot at having a nuclear family, and if you end up separated/divorced, you do your best to still be the best dad you can be. But that's it - you must have a burning desire to be a father. I know some guys have discussed simply knocking a chick up without attempting to marry her, and simply going to court to work out custody. I get where they're coming from, but I think it's better to be under the same roof with your kid in the early years, and truly establishing yourself as a dominant figure in your child's life. You can't influence them the same way if you're not there from the beginning, every day.
Even if you could magically give birth to a child tomorrow, with no woman involved... How would you support yourself and raise the kid at the same time? You'd have to consign the kid to childcare, a far worse fate. If single motherhood is bad, I can't imagine a daycare baby being any better.