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They also need to reform the divorce laws to make divorce harder. Eliminate no-fault divorce and make the one who abandons the marriage without proven cause the one who gives up everything.

If a woman walks out on her husband without proving he committed adultery or is abusive then she walks out with nothing, no kids, no support, nothing but her clothes and personal effects. Likewise if the man walks out.

When we get back to marriage being forever the crisis will end. Now it's far to easy for one partner to walk out for no reason. (Usually stated as "I just don't love him anymore" Well boo hoo. You should have only two choices in marriage, either make it work or be miserable)

Of course Jeff is also correct, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

God Save America (Please)

They also need to reform the divorce laws to make divorce harder. Eliminate no-fault divorce and make the one who abandons the marriage without proven cause the one who gives up everything.

Ronald Reagan's no-fault divorce revolution certainly was a starting point for a lot of bad things. But we do not have to go as far as you suggest. I'm not laying down an argument against you, only stating a logical fact. Following the introduction of no-fault divorce, the federal government (largely under Reagan) took arbitrary control of divorce law -- which is an area they are not entitled to regulate according to the Constitution.

What we need -- along the lines of what you said but perhaps a less extreme version of it -- is a return to the fundamentals of the implied contract, whether that means the one who files for divorce always looses everything or not. That idea however would not be credible unless there was at least some serious leaning in the direction you suggest.

Initiating that process is not at all complicated. Get the federal government out of domestic relations. It doesn't belong there in the first place, and things are now all screwed up because the federal government is paying (our tax dollars and then some) to make it screwed up with the intention of having it be screwed up.

...why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free...

Why would women endure the compromises that a marriage entails when they can get all of the same parenting rights, and finances, and property in a divorce?

[When we get back to marriage being forever the crisis will end. Now it's far to easy for one partner to walk out for no reason. (Usually stated as "I just don't love him anymore" Well boo hoo. You should have only two choices in marriage, either make it work or be miserable]

There are situations that are Not abusive, and Not adulterous, yet unbearable nonetheless. Throwing two people together who clearly don't get along, and won't get along isn't the answer either. Seems like your proposal would make people LESS likely to marry in the first place.

>>They also need to reform the divorce laws to make divorce harder. Eliminate no-fault divorce and make the one who abandons the marriage without proven cause the one who gives up everything.<<

I am more and more convinced that of all the potential solutions to this epidemic, something along the lines of your statement is by far the best solution I have seen suggested. It would have problems, of course - but it is still the best.