Ellyne said marriage would have advantages for the Federation

2. If people know their misbehaviors may come back and

hit their family, they are less likely to commit them.

Though of course people who are not married still have families, and live with them, and love them just as much and everything, so this would apply anyway.

Or do you mean that the Federation would find it harder to identify who those families were?

Would a delta grade who had a child out of wedlock or whatever receive any kind of state help? Unlikely.

Would a Delta who conceived a child *in* wedlock receive any state help? Presumably the same rules would apply: in either case if she or her partner were unemployed they wouldn't be able to feed the child without help. A marriage contract doesn't make it cheaper to live.

Alison