Stimulating the Economy Without Spending a Dime

   Some of the brightest minds in the world have been perplexed and confounded at the best way to make the U.S. economy stronger. It seems like a no two experts can agree on anything and no suggestion has been proposed that didn't required significant spending changes. Some suggest cutting the budget and paying off the national debt, others strongly urge that more bailouts are the answer. There doesn't appear to be a quick easy answer in sight. But that doesn't have to be the case.
   It seems elementary to say that if you give people a good reason to spend money, they will. Most people work all their lives to afford the things they want. Most will spare no expense for what their heart desires. So I say, lets give it to them. What is the one thing that hundreds of thousands of Americans want and would pay tens of thousands of dollars to purchase? No I'm not advocating for legalizing marijuana. That would cost the government millions of dollars in regulation and sanctions and create somewhat of a legal disaster in the short term. I am referring to giving all people the ability to marry the person they love. Just for a moment set aside your biases and your strong views and follow me on this journey into what could be.
   If Americans were permitted by law to marry any one they wanted, no matter the sex, they would. According to the website http://www.soundvision.com/info/weddings/statistics.asp, 2.3 millions couples wed every year in the U.S. and the average wedding budget is $20,000. That is an astounding number. With an estimated 4.3 million gay, lesbian or bisexual people in the U.S., that number would surely skyrocket if these Americans were allowed to marry. If less than 5% of the estimated gay or lesbian population got married, the amount of money put into the economy would crush every other stimulus plan to date. And it would actually make the government money without spending a dime.
   Lets look at some more numbers. Lets say out of the 4.3 million gay or lesbians, 100,000 of them got married. Average wedding costing $20,000, average honeymoon costing just over $8000 and an average of over $3000 spent buying gifts for the married couple. That comes out to $310,000,000 being put into the economy. I can't even begin to name all the different industries that are required for the modern day wedding, from linen makers to horse carriage rental services. The government will even benefit by selling more marriage licenses and passports, collecting the taxes on all this newly spent money. And don't forget divorces can actually cost more than a marriage.
   It really does seem like a win win. People would gladly shell out more money then they have any right to spend, the government wouldn't be funding part of the purchase (i.e. cash for clunkers) and our taxes wouldn't even have to go up. Realistically this may never happen. Despite the supposed separation of church and state, religious views tend to dominate the gay marriage argument. I will not say whether I think gay marriage is morally right or wrong because it doesn't really matter. Being engaged to a beautiful women I don't have to worry about it. I just have to do my part in stimulating the economy by saying those two little words every bride to be wants to hear. Yes dear.