[The Hierophant]

Howdy.
Lately I've been seing a tremendous increase in the amount of single parents, divorcees and messy breakups out there. It would seem that the notion of marriage has changed quite dramatically in recent decades. Where once it was an economic business arrangement of practicality, nowadays it serves as an expression of so fickle and chatoic a notion as 'love'. Thus it would seem that as people pick and choose their relationships (as opposed to just having to 'go with what they get' so to speak) it would seem that the solidarity of marriage has weakened greatly. One used to be given a partner that one would simply have to 'make do' with, and not that great a deal was made as to the emotional 'compatibility' of the two individuals in question. Yet nowadays a fortune is being made by those peddling cheap answers to 'marriage problems' which essentially seem to be arising from people's increasing dissatisfaction with the institution of judeo-christian monogamous marriage.
What I'm trying to get at is do you people think that the traditional institution of marriage and the nuclear family is becoming incompatible with the modern 'free' consumer society? Can the institutionalization of supposed 'freedom' and 'independance' within the psyche of the modern consumer continue to support the traditionally restrictive system of wealth distribution that marriage essentially is? The mounting evidence would suggest not.