| Younger Americans, especially, have found their own use for prenuptial agreements: protecting their spouses from the worst impulses of the American debt-collection system.  Illustration by Jonathan Djob Nkondo During the seventh season of “Seinfeld,” the character George Costanza, desperate to push his fiancée, Susan, to back out of their engagement, proposes that she sign a prenuptial agreement, hoping that she will be turned off by his unromantic pragmatism. (The gambit fails—she’s amused, and happy to do it. Later, she dies after licking toxic envelopes.) This was back in the nineties, when prenups were rare—just another legal maneuver of the rich and famous. But as Michael Waters writes in an eye-opening piece for this week’s Family Issue, according to a new survey by Harris Poll, fifteen per cent of married or engaged respondents report having signed a prenup, and the number rises to nearly forty per cent for people between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four. What’s changed? Debt, mostly—and the desire to protect one’s partner from the ruthless apparatus designed to collect it. Waters surveys the history of prenups in North America, from seventeenth-century arrangements to a startup called HelloPrenup, which helps couples decide if an agreement is right for them. While some still see prenups as an ill omen for marriage—an example of expecting the worst—for many people, this kind of forethought and attention to detail is plenty sexy. As Waters notes, “protecting your spouse from the ravages of debt can be romantic in its own way—and certainly an act of love.” The Family Issue: An exploration of what family means today. We’re publishing new pieces each day this week. Tomorrow: Kids who’ve lost parents to COVID; bad parenting advice; and a precious chess set. —Ian Crouch, newsletter editor Support The New Yorker’s stories about the head and the heart. Subscribe today » | 
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