What are the pros and cons of Marriage?

If you don’t believe in the whole “god’s will” stuff, marriage is really just bureaucratic bullshit, BUT, it is also the most comfortable and fastest way (if not the only way) to have an adult recognised as a member of your family, thus obtaining all the relative benefits. Which is reasonable if you plan on a long term commitment.

I love the security of marriage. If marriage doesn’t interest you, that’s fine.
Politicians keep talking about defending marriage. If they were really interested in that, they would pass a law to stop Liza Minnelli from marrying again.

If you want the government to recognize legal rights of two people towards each other, you get married. Otherwise, you can just live together, but it gets difficult when one of the pair gets sick as often only the legal next-of-kin is allowed to make decisions. This is why same-sex marriage is a good thing.

However, getting married is also a way to tell the other person that you are going to share your life with them for the long-haul – you know, in sickness and in health, and so on. If you are healthy you can get by living completely on your own, but if you are ill so you suddenly cannot drive or can no longer work, then it is a wonderful thing to know that there is another person who likes you enough that they will change your diapers.

Quite frankly, I think a lot of folks get married without thinking of what it really means, that you have chosen a person to stay with and help and be helped by for the rest of your life.

I am not married yet, but I am engaged. I really have no idea why I was drawn to get married to my Fiancee. I think living for myself makes me a very complacent person. I want to have someone to want, need, miss, and be loved by. And I want someone to benefit from my successes and to have someone around when no one else would want me. I think filmfann is right, when you commit to a relationship on the level of a marriage it is a very secure thing. And if you decide to have children or a family, doing this outside of a marriage is usually pretty unstable.
And Darwin beat me too it but when you get old its nice to have another person around who loves you. Or at least puts up with you.

Are there any pros? I wasn’t aware.

To me a lot of the good and bad things are the same. You are not alone and you are having sex with the same person for the REST OF YOUR LIFE are good and shitty all at once.

Pros: spending your life with someone until death, having someone to be there through the toughest of times, always having someone to rely on and love you no matter what.
Cons: Divorce

Personally I’m attracted to the commitment that’s [suppose to be] accompanied with it.

i think it can bring you closer .i would rather say my wife than say my girl friend ,when i asked my gf to marry she said no.:(

It really depends on “who” you marry. If you marry the wrong person, it can be like a prison. Never marry for the wrong reasons…..superficial, money, security, don’t want to be alone, etc. No matter how much security it gives you, you’ll feel like you’re being strangled. Pick someone who is genuine and you wouldn’t mind wiping there ass when they are old.
If you marry the right one, life can be amazing. You’re on a team through the journey of life, with another person that you admire, love, trust and enjoy being around. They’ll bring you up, when you’re feeling down. And when you’re feeling up, what’s better than to be able to share that with someone.

But it takes work, just like anything else that’s amazing.

@modernista welcome to fluther. Lurve

I dated a bunch of jerks until I met the guy I married. He dated a bunch of jerks (and married and divorced one of them) until he met me. We fit well.

For me, the best part of being married (besides the sex, which is great) is being part of a team. There are some things I will just never be very good at, such as dealing with bureaucracy, fixing things, spider removal, and managing the 401k. He’s tops at all of that! And there are things that he’s pretty bad at, such as cooking (you should SEE what he ate when he was single!), planning things efficiently, packing (boxes and luggage), where I excel. Together we are more than the sum of our parts.

There’s also always someone there to snuggle with at night. There’s someone to hang out with. There’s someone who knows me – REALLY knows me – who is my best friend. He calls me out on my bull$hit (and vice versa). We have some similar interests (but not enough similar so as we’re stepping into each others’ business all the time). We’re different enough that we learn from each other.

I suppose these aren’t good things about the state of being married – not everyone gets as good a deal as I did when I married him. But if you’re married to someone who fits you well, it ROCKS!

On the other hand, there are downsides. I’m not nearly as spontaneous as I used to be. I used to just go do stuff whenever I wanted (schedule permitting), but he’s a homebody so we often just sit on the computer in the evenings. We get on each others’ nerves now and then, and yes we do fight. (We blow up in big fury, but then we talk it out not too long after.) It’s sometimes grating to have him there All The Time. Little things like the way he doesn’t refill the toilet paper can get to be big things. I think this happens to all couples – irksome things become maddening things.

Marriage is an investment. You have to look at the cost vs the benefits, and those will be different for every couple. Me, I think my return on investment was quite high, and all these things are worth trading for me to have my sweetie around for the duration.

Today, a lot of people perceive marriage as “total bullshit”... a worthless enterprise… a horrible legal agreement. I cannot possibly disagree more. Marriage signifies that you are willing to commit to a person.. just read the standard marriage vows. If you are looking at marriage as some kind of legal contract and nothing more.. than you probably shouldn’t get married. If, on the other hand, you understand the significance of commitment and are ready to have a partner in crime for life.. then maybe you are the type of person who should get married.

Either way, I believe marriage is a sacred thing. Removing it would be like not having a graduation from college… or not having a funeral when someone dies. If you are comfortable being the sort of .. cold.. person who doesn’t need that sort of thing than.. more power to you..

Pros: Tax breaks, access to your spouses social security, able to share healthcare, automatic inheritance rights, automatic visitation rights in hospitals, a privileged standing in society so no one questions your relationship. Also, a feeling that someone is willing to be with you through the bad and the good. Admittedly, this last one is really in our minds, because we all know that plenty of people get divorced.

Cons: Hmm…considering I am desperately waiting the ability to marry, I can’t think of one. Well, maybe one. It’s a lot harder to break-up.

I totally want to get married, but I think it might just be because gay marriage isn’t legal in most states and as soon as you tell me I can’t do something, I want to do it so bad. :D

Ok, that’s not true! Well, it is true, but it’s not the reason I want to get married. Entirely. I just think it’s nice to show that kind of commitment. If you never meet someone you want to marry, then by all means, don’t get married! If you meet someone you want to marry, well then, there’s your reasoning – simple as that. I also want to because it’s a validation of your relationship to the whole world, which is pretty neat. And you get to have a party. And you get a free name change, if you want it (little known fact – you can change it to ANYTHING, you don’t have to just change your last name!).