What a strange article. Only a geek could even think such a thing. "Taking the awkwardness out"? To find out your impending spouse had signed a contract that bound them to create an ironclad prenup with you, would mark you as the most suspicious, manipulative bastard on earth. That relieves the awkwardness of finding out later I suppose.
To find out your impending spouse had signed a contract that bound them to create an ironclad prenup with you, would mark you as the most suspicious, manipulative bastard on earth.
"On the contrary, my dear. Look at Section 4, Paragraph 3:
We can be entirely free of this contract if I donate all my worldly possessions to charity!"
How is it manipulative? It is nothing more than binding one's future self to a certain behavior.
By that same logic it is manipulative of the spouse to attempt to bind your future self to other behavior (only doing it with her, sharing property, etc).
You preempt your spouse from any part in the discussion. A spouse is different from a business partner, in that they are supposed to be party to important decisions.
Plenty of people preempt any discussion of certain topics and offer their spouse a "take it or leave it" choice.
The most common mechanism of doing this is a credible claim of future emotional reactions ("I wouldn't feel the same way about you if you have sex with other people"), or perhaps the reactions of third parties ("my mom would disown me if I married a non-Lutheran"). I don't see what makes this mechanism so unique.
Yes of course. But to do it with an elaborate plan, set in motion ahead of time and sprung on them unexpected, is a species of cold, reptilian logic that defies rationalization.
> To find out your impending spouse had signed a contract that bound them to create an ironclad prenup with you, would mark you as the most suspicious, manipulative bastard on earth.
Well, at least, unromantic and pragmatic. Me, I do work in business and science and I think it'd be irresponsible to potentially allow 50% control of my research, writings, and businesses I found/work in/develop/etc to go to someone else. Anyone that comes on to work for me needs to know that there's no chance that half my ownership share passes to someone else in the future, or that I need to take on debt or promises of a certain cash payment to retain the share.
For real life examples, look at how divorce wrecked the San Diego Padres baseball franchise - and the Moores had been married 45 years!
Community property? That's fine if no one stands to lose besides you, but I feel like it'd be personally pretty irresponsible of me to enter into a situation where divorce could ruin not just my business and life, but my staff, suppliers, clients, and people who count on me. Some people might say, "But if you have a great marriage and pick the right woman it wouldn't happen!" To that I say,
1. Everyone thinks that way and quite a few of them turn out to be mistaken.
2. I don't think my judgment is infallible, and I refuse to put other people's lives and livelihood unnecessarily at risk.
I agree it's still potentially awkward though - you need good communication about expectations early on.
The prenup - fine. The tortuous logic that brings you to creating a 2nd contract, solely to relieve you of the burden of communicating meaningfully with your potential spouse - there's where it crosses the line.
I'm not sure what's so awkward about telling someone that you want a Prenup in the first place. If you're close enough to someone to consider marrying them then you're close enough to tell them that you need one.
Interesting, However I trust my wife way more than I trust a 'company' that may or may not get bought by someone that wants to reinterpret my pre-nup to determine if it is iron clad enough to invalidate their right to half my stuff
Neat, I like the example with the chicken game. Game theory is always fun. I agree, though, that prenups might not be the best application for this.
This comment from the original site is hilarious, too:
"Maybe I should start a startup that requires you to pay a $1000 fee if you do business with anyone who signs a precommitment contract intended to give them a negotiating advantage." - Eliezer_Yudkowsky
