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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!andrew
From: andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Raising kids out of wedlock
Message-ID: <1048@orca.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Sep-84 12:04:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: orca.1048
Posted: Thu Sep 13 12:04:23 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 01:49:44 EDT
References: <1185@hcrvax.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 35

I think that this is terribly unfair to any kids you may have.  Your
children will be ridiculed and may be treated as second-class citizens.
We're not so far from the days when a "bastard" was considered an
untouchable and had fewer legal rights that "legitimate" people.  And
young children will be the first to use cruel and irrational taunts to
make your kids feel like dirt.

There's also the question of inheritance.  If you're not legally
married, there may be a problem if one or both of you die.  I don't
know about Canada, but in the states inheritance is taxed at a lower
rate, sometimes not at all, when property passes to the deceased's
legal spouse.  (Most of the states have eliminated the concept of
"common law marriage".)

Hmmm ... you may have trouble traveling.  In many places it is illegal
for an innkeeper to rent a room to an unmarried couple.  In some of the
more medieval countries (Arabia?), just being together may get you in
big trouble.

My beloved and I went through some of these problems when we were
"living together".  We had a great deal of trouble renting a house
together, and later had the same problems in buying.  In the state of
Michigan, cohabitation is illegal, and any neighbor with a grudge
against us could have had us arrested.

We eventually got married because one of us got a new job in a state
far away, and we wanted the company to pay to move both of us.  They
would only do this if we were married.

On the other hand, once we were married our US income tax went up by
$6000/year because we both earn professional salaries.
You can't win ...

  -- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew)      [UUCP]
                       (orca!andrew.tektronix@rand-relay)  [ARPA]