Millions of American families have been thrown into bankruptcy, many more live one paycheck from financial ruin, and even more are mired in poverty because of illness, physical incapacity, or divorce. The single most reliable predictor of poverty is whether children are born out of wedlock. Civil unions might offer a way for families to combine their economic and spiritual resources. For example, two single parents who are living from paycheck to paycheck could perhaps provide a more stable and financially secure environment if they joined forces. Civil unions might even prove popular with young urban professionals who want the economic benefits of marriage but not the emotional attachment.
Corporations form such alliances all the time.
In fact, conventional wisdom in corporate America has it that you must either merge, acquire, or integrate with your competitors in order to survive. Committing to such a relationship entails responsibilities as well as rights. And severing those ties may prove as costly as divorce. But I see a day when civil unions provide an attractive alternative to marriage for heterosexual as well as same-sex couples.