This highly educated segment of our society have concluded that marriage is not worth doing. They have a fear of divorce and all the pain, suffering, and financial difficulties divorce brings. Many of them are products of divorce. Therefore many of them choose to live together without marriage. This is not just for the sex, but for financial and companionship reasons as well.
Some people condemn the young for their suspicion and rejection of marriage.
Yet even the most cynical will admit that there are marriages that do last, and even more importantly there are marriages that flourish and are truly happy. The answers to these questions depend on what marriage actually is. Marriage in our society has slowly drifted into two very different forms of relationships, one based merely on an agreement and one based on consent . An agreement is simply a decision between two people. Consent is both an agreement and much more, a gut level commitment between two people to give themselves body and soul to each other.