There's no need to get married if a both in a couple are sure they want to spend the rest of their lives with the spouse. Just a simple thing like a bracelet would do; a symbol of their eternal love to each other. Or there might be no need for a symbol at all.
And yeah, marriage seems to be abused a lot nowadays, both for legal benefits and permanent residencies. I don't know, but are may be those who have been fooled by mail order brides, too^^.
I do believe in marriage and want to get married again.
If marriage is just a piece of paper, then why not just do it? If it means nothing then there would be no problem in doing it.
Is money just a piece of paper? Then everyone can gives me all of their worthless paper!
Is a college degree just a piece of paper? What about a deed to a house or land? A car title? We can do without all of those can't we!
Frankly I don't know about too many mail order brides do you?
Here is part of an article I found.
Individuals who choose to cohabitate often develop a relatively low tolerance for unhappiness and a greater willingness to quit relationships, including marriage, because they have established a pattern of leaving rather than choosing to work through differences.(For further clarification, I recommend you watch a few episodes of Judge Judy. She does a much better job of explaining why single people should not shack up than I ever could, considering that she’s been sitting on the bench as a judge longer than I have been alive.)
Moreover, the breakup of a cohabiting relationship is not necessarily cleaner or easier than a divorce. Any breakup that involves splitting up a household may lead to conflicts over property, leases, and past due bills, bills, bills.9 Just ask Judge Judy. If you’ve never seen her dispense justice to the victims of a live-in situation gone bad, let me tell you—it’s never good! Being house-mates and being spouse-mates are not the same under the law.
The fear of commitment is rampant these days. I know commitment can be a scary thing—especially if you’ve been burned before—but equating living together and test driving (or even leasing!) a car is just wacked. It’s a bad metaphor. No car dealer in his right mind would let you go four-wheeling in the Sahara or drag-racing on the Autobahn in a car you haven’t paid for yet—and the high-speed extreme sport of living with another person makes four-wheeling or drag-racing look like a trip on a merry-go-round. Marriage is like owning a Rolls with the speed of a LOTUS and the safety of a Volvo. Don’t settle for test driving a Geo Metro. It just won’t get you very far.
The sad reality is that cohabitants feel less secure in their relationships than married couples because they view their sexual relationships as less permanent and exclusive. They are less faithful to their partners than spouses. Even when they are faithful, they are less committed to sexual fidelity, which creates more insecurity because “levels of certainty about the relationship are lower than in marriage.”
Marriage means “I will always be here for you.” Marriage encourages emotional investment in an exclusive relationship. In contrast, cohabitation means, “I will be here only as long as the relationship meets my needs.” Contrary to popular belief, the majority of live-ins don’t lead to marriage! Only an estimated 60 percent end in marriage. Those who are afraid of commitment and permanence—or who fear that these qualities can no longer be found in marriage—may settle for cohabitation, but they are likely to discover they have settled for less. Couples who live together before marriage are 46 percent more likely to divorce than people who marry but never lived together. No one has ever found that cohabitation makes a positive contribution to later marital stability, regardless of what you see on the latest sitcom.
If failed marriages and relationships aren’t enough to prove that living together is high-risk and low-benefit, check this out: Cohabiting women are more likely than married women to be the victims of physical and/or sexual abuse. Some estimate domestic violence is at least twice and as much as three times as common among live-in couples as it is among married people.
Marriage: The Best Alternative
I truly believe countless lives would change for the better if people were told The Naked Truth about the benefits of marriage. Families could not continue to be in such disarray if true believers—not make-believers—began to evangelize their communities about marriage. It’s important to share what God says, but it’s more powerful to live the truth. How you live your life says more about you than anything you can ever say. A marriage revival will only occur when Christians obey God’s charge in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then . . . I will heal their land.”
“Evangelize at all times, and when necessary use words.”
—St. Francis of Assisi
Sex in America was a book that documented the most exhaustive research study ever done on married couples in the U.S. and it found that married people achieve the five basic things that almost everyone wants: long life, health, financial security, sense of well-being, and a happy sex life. Though living together is now generally accepted, its outcomes can’t compare to the benefits of marriage.16
Married people not only feel better but are actually physically healthier and live longer than single people.17 There are many mental and physical health benefits to knowing that there is another person who will take care of you when you cannot take care of yourself. Married people vow to care for each other “in sickness and in health, as long we both shall live.”
Married couples—who are mutually dependent upon each other, helping each other to meet their financial and career goals—are more likely to be financially responsible for their partners than live-ins, who place a greater value on their independence over dependability. Live-ins are more likely to control their own finances and protect their individual economic futures by having separate bank accounts, instead of working as an economic team.
Married men earn nearly twice as much as single men. This may be explained by the increased financial responsibility men feel when they marry as many men have been heard saying, “Marriage made me get more serious about my career and making a good living.”18
Married women also benefit from marriage in that they make more money than their cohabitating or single sisters, and they also have access to more of their man’s earnings. In addition, many married women report receiving considerable support from their husbands in their careers.19
Married couples are also better off financially because they monitor each other’s spending in a way that emphasizes “our budget.” For most marrieds, “Your money is my money, and my money is your money.” According to the authors of The Case for Marriage, “This financial union is one of the cornerstones (along with sexual union) of what Americans mean by marriage.”20
There's more but no need to post.
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Is a college degree just a piece of paper? What about a deed to a house or land? A car title? We can do without all of those can't we!