My mom has a friend who has a daughter. The daughter has been with the same man for fifteen years and they have four children.
They will not get married. If they do, they will be giving up all the gov’t freebies (medical, food stamps, free school lunches, eventually free college for the kids, etc). So they have their house and their cars and their middle-class lifestyle, partially funded by us.
I think it’s sick, but it does make a practical kind of sense. Why get married when NOT being married practically doubles your intake and makes life so much easier?
I know a divorced woman with a special needs child. If she gets married, she’ll lose all the benefits associated with the care of the special needs child. So she lives with a man, but will not get married to him. He doesn’t make enough money to provide the extensive care the child needs. She has to choose the welfare of her child first. Perverse.