Ron Hutchison (Globe, May 19) expresses outrage in his guest column at “conservatives” who resent the concept of gay marriage and invites them to “buy a one-way ticket to China” where the government will agree with them.

He sees the issue purely as one of intolerance, but like many others, he is missing a vital point, the financial aspect. Allow me to explain.

Aside from any religious concern, wedlock has a financial and legal significance. By being able to file jointly, even if both parties have earned income, most married couples in our country save money. Why does our culture provide this break? The logical answer, I contend, is to financially protect children and to incentivize parents and potential parents to stay together for the children’s sake.

Although I don’t like labels, my personal feelings about government tend to be like those of the libertarians. This might appear to put me on Mr. Hutchisons’s side in his rant defending the right of people to live any way they like, “...as long as our behavior does not harm others.” But the problem is that allowing gay marriage does affect everyone else. It diminishes the tax base. What about others living together such as friends, siblings, cousins and adult children still at home? Shall we consider them “married” for tax purposes too?

Some laws that curtail “freedom” are beneficial, such as regulations to control pollution, medicines, food safety, and so on. I believe marriage is one of these because society needs to protect children and perhaps even more so now that out-of-wedlock births are approaching the 50 percent level. Traditional marriage is an endangered species and it does not need dilution.

Gay marriage is not the only issue of “freedom” that is financially harmful, of course. People who refuse to wear seat belts or cycle helmets drive up the cost of health insurance for the rest of us. If they are injured and become basket cases, they expect complete health care at public (our) expense if, as is usually the case, they themselves cannot afford it. People who insist on smoking in public don’t mind harming the lungs of those around them. People who eat themselves into obesity consider it their right to have an electric cart supplied by Medicaid (our taxes again) when they can no longer waddle in to the high-calorie aisles. We have become an entitlement society and that is the opposite of self-reliance, a founding principle of our country.

I believe that gay people are born that way and that they deserve the same dignity and respect as any other citizen. But, if they wish special tax breaks, they should seek them on separate merits as civil unions, perhaps with special provisions for those who adopt. Marriage is a different thing. Marriage is more than love, it’s also about children.

James R. Wheeler lives in Joplin.