Not sure if this is political, but I understood why people in America were so obsessed with gay marriage much more when I realised that spouses get health care automatically. So people weren’t really (or not exclusively) getting upset over a symbolic distinction but a practical one.
There’s been a similarly large fuss over gay marriage in the UK, where 1) the NHS provides healthcare to everyone and 2) existing civil partnership legislation gave gay couples all the benefits of straight couples. So I don’t think that practical issue is very important.
(Also, there are many far easier ways of getting health insurance than by upsetting arguably the most important institution in the history of the world!)
Your observation on this subject disagrees with mine. I’d say there was significantly less fuss about gay marriage in the UK. I suggest this is selection effect on one or both of our parts.
I don’t know exactly what you mean by that, but my (optional) employer-provided health insurance had a premium increase when I opted to include my family vs just insuring myself.
Of course, the increase wasn’t the same as doubling the price, but the coverage was contingent on my having a full-time job that chose to offer it and my paying more for it.
Not sure if this is political, but I understood why people in America were so obsessed with gay marriage much more when I realised that spouses get health care automatically. So people weren’t really (or not exclusively) getting upset over a symbolic distinction but a practical one.
There’s been a similarly large fuss over gay marriage in the UK, where 1) the NHS provides healthcare to everyone and 2) existing civil partnership legislation gave gay couples all the benefits of straight couples. So I don’t think that practical issue is very important.
(Also, there are many far easier ways of getting health insurance than by upsetting arguably the most important institution in the history of the world!)
Your observation on this subject disagrees with mine. I’d say there was significantly less fuss about gay marriage in the UK. I suggest this is selection effect on one or both of our parts.
Interesting paper on monogamous marriage: http://www.gwern.net/docs/2012-heinrich.pdf
I don’t know exactly what you mean by that, but my (optional) employer-provided health insurance had a premium increase when I opted to include my family vs just insuring myself. Of course, the increase wasn’t the same as doubling the price, but the coverage was contingent on my having a full-time job that chose to offer it and my paying more for it.
Thing is, they don’t know about that either, and/or don’t care.