Should The Government Pay For Marriage Counselling?

This episode, Matt and Graham stray into unusual territory, don their policy wonk hats, and look at a question of public policy.

They discuss Andrew Yang's idea when running for U.S. President in 2020 for the state to fund marriage counselling before divorce. Similar ideas were proposed as part of legisiation in the UK in 2020.

Should the Government fund counselling to attempt to keep couples together? Even if it's a good idea in principle, could it ever work?

Here's Andrew Yang discussing his idea:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/452014-meghan-mccain-argues-with-andrew-yang-about-free-marriage-counseling-proposal/

And Patrick Deneen discussing the idea on Ezra Klein's podcast:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/13/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-patrick-deneen.html

Here's the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/11/pdfs/ukpgaen_20200011_en.pdf