I do not believe that marrying good people is sufficient to make divorce laws irrelevant
I’m talking on a personal level, not social. In the same way I would suggest that you not rob anyone and if you follow that suggestion, laws about robbery will be irrelevant to you (insert the usual disclaimers).
Yes, I understood that you meant individuals rather than society as a whole. And I am suggesting that a policy of only marrying good people is not sufficient to keep a person from having to care about divorce laws. Unless e.g. you define “good” in such a way as to imply “would never get divorced” or “would, if getting divorced, never have interests that sharply diverge from their ex-spouse’s” or something, which I would think highly unreasonable and which would make it even more impossible to be sure of not marrying someone not-good.
… Oh, wait. Is what you’re really suggesting a policy of never marrying at all? Because that (1) is probably the only way to be sure of not marrying anyone who isn’t “good” and (2) would indeed make it very unlikely that one would need to care about divorce laws.
In such a way as to imply that two civilized people—even with different interests—can negotiate and come to an agreement without engaging in lawyer warfare and without getting the justice system involved (other than putting an official stamp on the agreement).
Besides, what both you and VoiceOfRa (heh) care about is probably not so much divorce laws, but rather prevalent practices in the Family Courts which typically have very wide latitude in deciding on the post-(antagonistic)divorce arrangements.
If A and B get married—even if they are both good people and know one another to be good people—then there is a non-negligible chance that at some point their marriage will break down. In that case—even if they are both good people—there is a non-negligible chance that it will do so acrimoniously and some variety of hostilities will ensue. There is a further non-negligible chance that their marriage will end on reasonably friendly terms but then, in the course of tidying up the legal loose ends, one of them will engage a lawyer who notices that they could do “better” and who strongly encourages them to do so. There is a further non-negligible chance (I think) that when they divorce there will be children involved and it will be necessary to involve the legal system.
In any of those cases, what happens will be influenced by the divorce laws. Or, at the very least, I don’t see how A and B can know that it won’t without being familiar with the divorce laws.
Furthermore, A may be sure when A and B get married that B is a good person, but s/he may turn out not to be so good after all. Or one or both may become less good over time, which is a thing that sometimes happens to people who are unhappily married and even to people who aren’t.
Now, for the sake of good relations at the start of A and B’s marriage, it may be best if A doesn’t think B is looking up divorce laws just in case and vice versa. The best way to avoid that may be for A and B genuinely not to look up divorce laws before they are married. And the best way to avoid that may be for A and B genuinely not to care about divorce laws, even though aside from the effect on each of thinking that the other anticipates possible divorce they’d be better off knowing. But that isn’t the same as saying that if you take care to marry a good person then you will never be affected by divorce laws.
I’m talking on a personal level, not social. In the same way I would suggest that you not rob anyone and if you follow that suggestion, laws about robbery will be irrelevant to you (insert the usual disclaimers).
Yes, I understood that you meant individuals rather than society as a whole. And I am suggesting that a policy of only marrying good people is not sufficient to keep a person from having to care about divorce laws. Unless e.g. you define “good” in such a way as to imply “would never get divorced” or “would, if getting divorced, never have interests that sharply diverge from their ex-spouse’s” or something, which I would think highly unreasonable and which would make it even more impossible to be sure of not marrying someone not-good.
… Oh, wait. Is what you’re really suggesting a policy of never marrying at all? Because that (1) is probably the only way to be sure of not marrying anyone who isn’t “good” and (2) would indeed make it very unlikely that one would need to care about divorce laws.
In such a way as to imply that two civilized people—even with different interests—can negotiate and come to an agreement without engaging in lawyer warfare and without getting the justice system involved (other than putting an official stamp on the agreement).
Besides, what both you and VoiceOfRa (heh) care about is probably not so much divorce laws, but rather prevalent practices in the Family Courts which typically have very wide latitude in deciding on the post-(antagonistic)divorce arrangements.
If A and B get married—even if they are both good people and know one another to be good people—then there is a non-negligible chance that at some point their marriage will break down. In that case—even if they are both good people—there is a non-negligible chance that it will do so acrimoniously and some variety of hostilities will ensue. There is a further non-negligible chance that their marriage will end on reasonably friendly terms but then, in the course of tidying up the legal loose ends, one of them will engage a lawyer who notices that they could do “better” and who strongly encourages them to do so. There is a further non-negligible chance (I think) that when they divorce there will be children involved and it will be necessary to involve the legal system.
In any of those cases, what happens will be influenced by the divorce laws. Or, at the very least, I don’t see how A and B can know that it won’t without being familiar with the divorce laws.
Furthermore, A may be sure when A and B get married that B is a good person, but s/he may turn out not to be so good after all. Or one or both may become less good over time, which is a thing that sometimes happens to people who are unhappily married and even to people who aren’t.
Now, for the sake of good relations at the start of A and B’s marriage, it may be best if A doesn’t think B is looking up divorce laws just in case and vice versa. The best way to avoid that may be for A and B genuinely not to look up divorce laws before they are married. And the best way to avoid that may be for A and B genuinely not to care about divorce laws, even though aside from the effect on each of thinking that the other anticipates possible divorce they’d be better off knowing. But that isn’t the same as saying that if you take care to marry a good person then you will never be affected by divorce laws.