more frequently, live shorter lives, make less money, and have worse health than people in a relationship. If they’re not violent, single men just sit around on the couch watching football, wasting their time instead of becoming productive members of society. Meanwhile, single women complain to everyone about their lack of dates and eat tubs of ice cream, burdening the health care system. It's horribly inefficient."
Warming to the subject, Patter fell into the pitch that now sounds so familiar to us. “If you said 43 percent of the country was suffering from a curable disease that ruins lives and imposes a huge cost on the economy, everyone would agree that distributing the cure to that disease should be the country’s highest priority. The only reason people hesitated to cure the disease of single people is that there’s an outdated Western cultural taboo of individualism, of invincible lone cowboy types who can do everything themselves, including finding their own mate through dating.”
Stu laughed, seemingly genuinely though the thought had to have occurred to him thousands of times in the past. “There's a tremendous waste of assets in the sorting process of dating. Money spent on online dating only scratches the surface. Men and women, often poorly educated, put themselves into debt buying extravagant cars, perfumes, and makeup simply to attract a mate. Then there's the psychological cost of failed dates and loneliness, manifested in bills paid to psychiatrists and late-night rentals of romantic comedies. Our team of economic analysts estimated direct and indirect dating costs at roughly $710 billion every year. Meanwhile, attractive people derive all sorts of unfair benefits because they're attractive. Studies repeatedly show they are advanced faster in their careers and make more money for the same work. Billions of dollars are spent on drinks bought for attractive people at bars every year. Is that fair? Hell no it isn't."
He grew a touch more somber. "Now, the economic case for the Partnership Act was always the most convincing part for me
***
There was much truth in Patter's pitch. By 2014, fifty one percent of marriages ended in divorce and over forty percent of individuals of marriageable age were single, seemingly destined to be old maids forever. Surely, a society as affluent as ours could afford to ensure that no one died alone.