What Good is an LTCR?

So, one might ask whether there is any real value to long-term committed relationships beyond people's idiosyncratic preference for them. I think there is, and in fact I think LTCRs are a crucial social institution. In fact, while marriage has at times been seen as an oppressive institution, I think in all likelihood its overall effect is strongly egalitarian and welfare-promoting.

LTCRs have a few important characteristics that are relatively easy to model.

1. Picture an LTCR as a stream of benefits and costs for each partner. Benefits include sex, companionship, and financial support. Costs include opportunity costs (giving up other sexual opportunities - usually) and financial costs.

2. The "commitment" aspect of an LTCR allows people to make mutually beneficial trades across time. For instance, imagine an attractive young woman who can provide significant sexual benefits to her partners. She might enter an LTCR with a less-attractive man with a promising career. Early on, she provides him with sex while he provides relatively little. Later, he provides her with financial stability while she provides relatively little (at that point she is no longer especially attractive). This doesn't work absent an LTCR - there is no way to strike inter-temporal bargains if there is no commitment mechanism. Eliminating LTCRs means eliminating the "gains from trade" - it is analogous to eliminating contract enforceability in courts of law.

3. LTCRs also provide a sort of risk-pooling or insurance benefit. With two independent sources of income, it is far less likely for job-loss or illness to be catastrophic. Again, this doesn't work absent an LTCR - insurance would not be worth much if the insurance company could walk away from its obligations at will. It is the "in sickness and in health" aspect of LTCRs that helps them reduce risk.

LTCRs are thus egalitarian in that they protect people who would otherwise be in desperate situations. A lot of the worst-off people are people who were hit with major setbacks without any kind of safety net to cushion the fall. If these people were in LTCRs, they would be a lot better off. (LTCRs are also egalitarian to the extent they are monogamous, since monogamy is itself egalitarian.)

LTCRs can be partially replaced by government-funded social programs, but I think few social programs could provide the huge benefits of LTCRs at such low cost. LTCRs are a cornerstone of a good society, and their decline is a major reason to worry about the fabric of our society.