In the past few decades, marriage has become one of the most important decisions for American people. The outlook of relationship has changed surprisingly in the United States and now people accept same-sex marriage, interracial and interethnic marriage.
Furthermore, by the improvement in technology, lifestyle, and education people contemplate marriage more than the past. Technology opens up a new opportunity for people to meet each other even if they are from different cultures and countries. They could find their partner throughout the phone applications or dating websites and talk about their interests and cultures. According to Pew Research Center survey, “A total of 15% of American adults have used online dating sites and/or mobile dating apps, up from 11% who reported doing so in 2013. Roughly four-in-ten Americans (41%) know someone who uses online dating, and 29% know someone who has entered a long-term relationship via online dating” (Web). As we can see, the number of people that use online dating web sites and apps has increased during the past years.
This points out that more people want to be in a relationship leading to marriage. However, some people in the United States believe people lose their freedom if they get married. Even though in the United States marriage cost a lot and people would lose their freedom, the government allocates different benefits for legally married couples to encourage people to marry. In addition to this governmental support for marriage, there are some personal benefits like mental health, commitment, and emotional connection for the married couples. Therefore, marriage has notable benefits for American society.
First, marriage significantly increase the mental and physical health of parents and children’s. Each member of the family is responsible about the other members and have their own duties in the family. Having responsibility in the family helps the member to feel more confident and useful in their own life. Indeed, Children tend to imitate their parents and doing the things that their parents do. Therefore, if the parents are responsible about each other and their family, children would learn and do the same. Having responsibility and commitment are two characteristics that help married couples and children to have better health rate in comparison to the unmarried people because responsibility and commitment make the family happier and stronger. As Bridget Maher in his article, “The Benefits of Marriage,’ she states, “Married people have better emotional and physical health than unmarried people’ (Web).
Maher continues with statistics from a 2004 report from the National Center for Health Statistics that found ‘…married people are happier and healthier than widowed, divorced, separated, cohabiting or never-married people, regardless of race, age, sex, education, nationality, or income’ (Web). When people decided to form a new family, they now that they are going to have a big responsibility and commitment to their family. They prepare themselves to leave some habits and start a new life with the family. Moreover, leaving some habits helps people to abundant themselves from some unnecessary regular tendency and become healthier.
In addition, people who get married feel more useful in their life, because they know that someone will appreciate for what they have done. Having married parents also helps children to have better physical and mental health. Parents are the most important parts in children lives. The statistics shows that married parents have treated better children for the society in comparison with single parents. Married parents’ children have the chance to have both father and mother attention, while single parents can only have half of this attention.
Therefore, married couple and their children have a better chance to be healthier and enjoy their life. Second, government support married couples’ and their children financially and medically. The US is known as a powerful country in the world. This power comes from the constitutional low, powerful economy, government, and strong army. The constitutional law assign several benefits for married couples. One of the greatest benefits for married couple remains reduce tax for married couples’ who file the tax joint.
For instance, if we consider a couple with significant different income, the one with the lower income can pull the higher down into the lower bracket and reduce their overall tax. Indeed, married couple claim two personal exemption on the tax return in lieu one when they are single. As Lindsey Buchholz state “…For 2017, single taxpayers are allowed a standard deduction of $6350, while married couples filing a joint return are allowed a deduction of $12700 (Web).” As we can see married couple can file the tax together and use double amount of deduction. Furthermore, married couple have the opportunity to have individual retirement account (IRA) even if one of the spouse does not work. If only one spouse works, the working spouse can make an IRA contribution on behalf of the non-working spouse.
