blackshoe, on Nov 6 2008, 05:27 PM, said:
hrothgar, on Nov 6 2008, 11:12 AM, said:
If a "marriage" is a religious ceremony / sacrament then the government has no interest in the event.
However, once marriage enters into the realm of contract then the governmnet has a very strong interest. The government is responsible for the legal infrastructure that enforces said contract. Therefore, the government has a strong interested in understand
who entered into a contract
when they entered into a contract
what was promised by said contract
yada, yada, yada
Of course you do.
The government has no interest in the details of contracts unless and until there is a dispute between the people involved - and then its interest is limited to ensuring a fair resolution of the dispute.
Or would you suggest the government should keep a database of the details you mentioned of all contracts? If so, why?
The government does keep a database of many important contracts. They keep records of who is a car dealer, who owns which houses, of registered corporations, what-the-heck they even keep track of who owns which car... I guess in short they keep track of all contracts that directly affect your taxes.
I would wager that a marriage is a more important contract than buying a car. I guess you are libertarian and against all the databases I mentioned above, but then you should say so and not single out marriages.