--- title: How Privatizing Marriage Would Be Disastrous description: Why privatizing marriage would be a disaster, the shrinking U.S. workforce, America's upgraded nuclear arsenal, and more. canonical: https://time.com/3964169/privatize-marriage/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-20T16:03:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:24.825Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Privatizing Marriage Would Be Disastrous og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/3964169/privatize-marriage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Privatizing Marriage Would Be Disastrous twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Privatizing Marriage Would Be Disastrous by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 20, 2015 4:03 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 20, 2015 4:03 PM UTC **1\.** [**Why privatizing marriage would be a disaster.**](http://theweek.com/articles/564916/why-privatizing-marriage-disaster) By Shikha Dalmia in the Week **2\.** [**Is the United States working on a new nuclear weapon?**](http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-17/despite-words-contrary-us-working-new-nuclear-weapon) By Oliver Lazarus in the Takeaway **3\.** [**Why America’s workforce is shrinking and Europe’s isn’t.**](http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/15/news/economy/europe-america-workforce/) By Tami Luhby in CNN Money **4\.** [**The Pentagon is courting Silicon Valley and leaving traditional defense contractors behind.**](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/pentagon-outreach-to-silicon-valley-stirs-a-fuss-120177.html) By Leigh Munsil and Philip Ewing in Politico **5\.** [**New drugs for Alzheimer’s could treat Parkinson’s and other brain diseases.**](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/07/19/423891071/alzheimers-drugs-in-the-works-might-help-other-diseases-too) By Jon Hamilton at NPR  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3964169/privatize-marriage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3964169/privatize-marriage/"},"headline":"How Privatizing Marriage Would Be Disastrous","datePublished":"2015-07-20T16:03:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:24.825Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/3964169/privatize-marriage/","keywords":["Innovation","Marriage","Pentagon","Alzheimer's","Silicon Valley","workforce"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3964169/privatize-marriage/","name":"How Privatizing Marriage Would Be Disastrous"}}]}] ```