by Mary W. Matthews

Created on: July 22, 2008

Marriage is a legal contract between two people. While for many marriages, perhaps most, a prenuptial agreement is a good idea, it certainly ought NOT to be compulsory. For one thing, a prenuptial agreement is a contract too, meaning that you'd be compelled to enter into a pre-contract contract!

Because marriage is a legal contract, requiring a prenuptial "agreement" (contract) would open the door to requiring preliminary contracts for all sorts of other legal contracts. For example, before you hire a contractor to put a new roof onto your house, you might be compelled to enter into a "pre-roof-al" agreement that you will supply free food and drink to everyone who works on your house. Then your "work force" might balloon to dozens of people!

COMPELLING people who wish to enter into legal contracts to first have pre-contract contracts is a good idea only for bottom-feeding lawyers and people who love Big Government and believe Big Government ought to regulate every moment of our lives. (People who LIKE being treated like criminals at the airport!)

Second, most prenuptial agreements in today's world are made if one or both of the people who plan to marry have property or other assets that they want to protect in case of divorce. Many people don't HAVE substantial assets when they're planning on getting married; I sure didn't, and neither did my husband. Why should we have been COMPELLED to work out a contract on what would happen to my 12-year-old Honda Civic and his ancient color TV if we ever divorced?

"Compulsory" agreements mean that you need to add taxes to pay for a government department of making sure that people who are planning to get married know they HAVE to have a prenuptial agreement. Then you need taxes to hire people to track down scofflaws and prosecute them. You need taxes to pay the D.A., the judge, and the staff of the courthouse to try scofflaws and impose fines on them. Then you'll need taxes to hire people to collect the fines or to prosecute people who don't pay the fines. Eventually, you'll need taxes for more space in prison. Anyone for more taxes? Anyone? . . .

I would strongly urge couples who are planning to get married to enter into prenuptial agreements — BUT, this would not be a prenup about money. My kind of prenup would make sure that both people are on the same page when it comes to the big issues of every marriage: how will they handle their finances? Who will do which chores (especially taking out the trash

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