How hard should it be to divorce?

There are people who think we should make it difficult for people to divorce, so they have an incentive to work hard to make the marriage work. I suppose there are others who think marriages should be easy to dissolve—as simple as saying, “I divorce thee” three times in a row.

As a matter of public policy, do you think divorce should be easier or harder, and why? The why is the heart of the question. I don’t really care what you think the answer should be. I am interested in why you think that.

What is the value of marriage? What makes it worth keeping it together? How much pain should people go through to see if it is fixable? How do you know when people are in more pain staying together than they would be in separating?

Feel free to include personal stories in helping us to understand your answers.