Another Reason For Civil Marriage Equality - It"s the Economy, Stupid
There's a popular video available on YouTube that pits pro same-sex marriage actors against their opposition, a troupe of religious affiliated Bibliophiles who rant and rave about the evils, degradation and slippery slope-ism, if that's a phrase, of the approaching tsunami of same sex marriage.
It's a reasonably lighthearted, somewhat slick caricature of the current controversy, with real, semi-famous Hollywood types, and a musical presentation that makes it all watchable and entertaining regardless of which side of the issue you happen to be on.
As the musical progresses, opponents shout their righteous claims against perversion, decadence, freedom of religion and the 'gay agenda'; gays and lesbians trill about the need for recognition, equality, freedom from religious dictates and marriage rights for all.
In the heat of the dustup, who walks into their midst but Jesus Christ Himself? Jesus appears to side with no one.
Instead, in His inscrutable fashion, He takes the religious cohort to task about certain Biblical references that seem to contradict common sense and practice, such as eating shellfish, selling girls into slavery, being stoned for working on the Sabbath and the like.
Then Jesus mystically departs, and there appears to be a deadlock.
The scene changes, however, when someone introduces the economic factor of the controversy into the equation.
Chirping about the lost opportunities for divorce lawyers, caterers, wedding planners and the like, Neil Patrick Harris slowly but surely makes an impact on the otherwise adamant religious group.
Suddenly they 'see the light', and, as a group, in a sort of come to Jesus moment, they understand the error of their ways.
"There's money to be made", they sing, happily conceding the rights of LGBT people to do their part in repairing the damaged economy by getting married! It always seems to come down to money, of course.
The biggest obstacle to slavery wasn't a black/white differential, or a reluctance to flood the workforce, or any altruistic impulse toward our fellow human beings.
It was reluctance based on the economic impact of losing free labor, and what that would do to the price of cotton and other field crops, and the subsequent impact on the economy of the South.
It was money.
Allowing women to vote was an economic issue, insofar as they would in all probability vote with their purses, just as men had done with their wallets forever, thus introducing a frightening unknown into the electoral process.
When this country announced its independence from Britain, voting rights were based on property ownership.
This typically meant that those voting were white males over the age of 21 of the Protestant religion.
Women citizens didn't gain voting rights nationwide for 144 years, until 1920.
So why is same sex marriage in the same category, and why would it benefit the economy? Mr.
Harris' comment aside, that there's "money to be made", the reason is simple.
The economy reacts favorably to any expansion of human rights because, in a capitalistic system, the more people who have money, the more they spread it around, and the more money gets spread around the faster the economy grows.
People lacking their rights have, in general, less access to the marketplace, and therefore less positive impact on the economy.
Granted, the LGBT community is a relatively small part of the population.
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a sexual orientation law and public policy think tank, estimates that there are 8.
8 million gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons in the U.
S based on the 2005/2006 American Community Survey, an extension of the U.
S.
Census.
This is adult population, of course, and the number is likely higher since there is still reluctance to identify as LGBT in this country, despite social advances in recent years.
Still, nearly nine million people is a substantial part of the spending populace.
And in reference to the same-sex marriage video and its core message, there is indeed money to be made.
Nine million people means potentially 4.
5 million marriages in a country which reports a bit more than two million marriages per year.
If one percent of gays and lesbians married every year, a not unrealistic assumption, that's 45,000 marriages per year, nearly 3,800 per month.
Now it's not realistic to assume that this activity will even register as a blip on the GDP, but these days the economy needs all the help it can get.
Most of the stimulus recently has been going from government down; a little stimulus going the other way could only help.
Moving on from stimulus to suppression, let's discuss societies need for all of us to be more responsible for our own financial well being.
I mentioned that affluent citizens impact the economy in positive ways.
Conversely, those who lack basic rights generally lack access to the marketplace in any substantial way.
In this sense, it's entirely possible, probable even, that those individuals may have a negative impact.
It makes sense; any member of a society who is forced to live at the fringe, such as those denied marriage rights and its affiliated benefits and protections, will eventually fall into a social safety net of some kind, unless they happen to be independently wealthy.
The gay community is perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomenon.
And they may be the best advocates for their present cause, the pursuit of civil marriage equality.
This was proven during the AIDS crisis, when LGBT people came together, circling the wagons to treat their own in a recognized communal outpouring of care and concern.
There are no end of stories of gays banding together to advocate for, treat, research, lobby and demonstrate for their colleagues, most of whom would have been a substantial burden on the already fragile health care environment otherwise.
This rationale by itself is reason enough to pursue civil marriage equality vigorously, the recognition that we all need someone to care for us at some point.
If that isn't an economic issue nothing is.
It's time to bring civil marriage equality to fruition.
There are many reasons, but economic ones always come to the fore eventually, and this time is no exception.
It's a reasonably lighthearted, somewhat slick caricature of the current controversy, with real, semi-famous Hollywood types, and a musical presentation that makes it all watchable and entertaining regardless of which side of the issue you happen to be on.
As the musical progresses, opponents shout their righteous claims against perversion, decadence, freedom of religion and the 'gay agenda'; gays and lesbians trill about the need for recognition, equality, freedom from religious dictates and marriage rights for all.
In the heat of the dustup, who walks into their midst but Jesus Christ Himself? Jesus appears to side with no one.
Instead, in His inscrutable fashion, He takes the religious cohort to task about certain Biblical references that seem to contradict common sense and practice, such as eating shellfish, selling girls into slavery, being stoned for working on the Sabbath and the like.
Then Jesus mystically departs, and there appears to be a deadlock.
The scene changes, however, when someone introduces the economic factor of the controversy into the equation.
Chirping about the lost opportunities for divorce lawyers, caterers, wedding planners and the like, Neil Patrick Harris slowly but surely makes an impact on the otherwise adamant religious group.
Suddenly they 'see the light', and, as a group, in a sort of come to Jesus moment, they understand the error of their ways.
"There's money to be made", they sing, happily conceding the rights of LGBT people to do their part in repairing the damaged economy by getting married! It always seems to come down to money, of course.
The biggest obstacle to slavery wasn't a black/white differential, or a reluctance to flood the workforce, or any altruistic impulse toward our fellow human beings.
It was reluctance based on the economic impact of losing free labor, and what that would do to the price of cotton and other field crops, and the subsequent impact on the economy of the South.
It was money.
Allowing women to vote was an economic issue, insofar as they would in all probability vote with their purses, just as men had done with their wallets forever, thus introducing a frightening unknown into the electoral process.
When this country announced its independence from Britain, voting rights were based on property ownership.
This typically meant that those voting were white males over the age of 21 of the Protestant religion.
Women citizens didn't gain voting rights nationwide for 144 years, until 1920.
So why is same sex marriage in the same category, and why would it benefit the economy? Mr.
Harris' comment aside, that there's "money to be made", the reason is simple.
The economy reacts favorably to any expansion of human rights because, in a capitalistic system, the more people who have money, the more they spread it around, and the more money gets spread around the faster the economy grows.
People lacking their rights have, in general, less access to the marketplace, and therefore less positive impact on the economy.
Granted, the LGBT community is a relatively small part of the population.
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a sexual orientation law and public policy think tank, estimates that there are 8.
8 million gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons in the U.
S based on the 2005/2006 American Community Survey, an extension of the U.
S.
Census.
This is adult population, of course, and the number is likely higher since there is still reluctance to identify as LGBT in this country, despite social advances in recent years.
Still, nearly nine million people is a substantial part of the spending populace.
And in reference to the same-sex marriage video and its core message, there is indeed money to be made.
Nine million people means potentially 4.
5 million marriages in a country which reports a bit more than two million marriages per year.
If one percent of gays and lesbians married every year, a not unrealistic assumption, that's 45,000 marriages per year, nearly 3,800 per month.
Now it's not realistic to assume that this activity will even register as a blip on the GDP, but these days the economy needs all the help it can get.
Most of the stimulus recently has been going from government down; a little stimulus going the other way could only help.
Moving on from stimulus to suppression, let's discuss societies need for all of us to be more responsible for our own financial well being.
I mentioned that affluent citizens impact the economy in positive ways.
Conversely, those who lack basic rights generally lack access to the marketplace in any substantial way.
In this sense, it's entirely possible, probable even, that those individuals may have a negative impact.
It makes sense; any member of a society who is forced to live at the fringe, such as those denied marriage rights and its affiliated benefits and protections, will eventually fall into a social safety net of some kind, unless they happen to be independently wealthy.
The gay community is perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomenon.
And they may be the best advocates for their present cause, the pursuit of civil marriage equality.
This was proven during the AIDS crisis, when LGBT people came together, circling the wagons to treat their own in a recognized communal outpouring of care and concern.
There are no end of stories of gays banding together to advocate for, treat, research, lobby and demonstrate for their colleagues, most of whom would have been a substantial burden on the already fragile health care environment otherwise.
This rationale by itself is reason enough to pursue civil marriage equality vigorously, the recognition that we all need someone to care for us at some point.
If that isn't an economic issue nothing is.
It's time to bring civil marriage equality to fruition.
There are many reasons, but economic ones always come to the fore eventually, and this time is no exception.
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