Wife as Servant:
Servants are a luxury item. The less a servant does, the more of a luxury he or she is. The more the servant charges, the more of luxury he or she is.
So, if you have a wife and keep her as a servant, and you’re not rich enough to afford one, that was a mistake. This is even if you treat her nice — I’m talking economics here, not relationships.
Take a look at countries where this is the norm. Their standard of living is (on average) very poor. Half of their population can’t contribute to the economy or the cutting edge of any field. Further, I bet divorced men in the U.S. are in much better shape financially than those men who live in these third world countries.
If you’re not wealthy enough to afford a servant, marry a partner. If you are, get a pre-nup, and good for you. Wish I could afford one.
And, also, children are expensive. If you get a woman pregnant, and aren’t married, you will still have to pay child support, and will have even less rights than the divorced man.
Now take a look at the birth rates:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_bir_rat-people-birth-rate
For the countries with a decent standard of living, the U.S. (#151) does fine.
Marriage, child births, etc. are not in trouble in the U.S. Even if some people do opt out, plenty don’t.
