And this differs from marriage exactly how?
A 50% divorce rate means those who marry are just as likely to "leave the moment he or she no longer feels happy or fulfilled" as they are to stay together.
Committment, my arse.
The 50% divorce rate is a misleading statistic. Most of that number comes from "repeat offenders" who marry and divorce more than twice. If you break out the multiple sequential marriages, the rate for single divorces is much lower.
where's the part about taking a mate for granted because they are now locked in "for better or for worse?"
sometimes i think shacking up works in reverse because "partners" know that the other person can easily walk out the door with no cumbersome and costly divorce, so they're less likely to treat the other person like crap, simply because they can walk at a moment's notice.
whereas if you're married you know it's a pain in the butt to actually go through divorce proceedings, so you put up with (or dish out) more crap for a longer period of time; some married couples just put up with crap for decades just to keep married; i don't see the happiness in this.
i may be wrong on this one, but i've observed this situation many times.
No oath is broken in leaving a living together arrangement. In certain "progressive" marriages, that may also be true, of course, but marriage is supposed to have a bit more to it than that.