You don't have to jointly agree though. If one person is just burned out being a middle manager at a tech company, they can choose to quit and move over to being a construction site traffic controller (holding road signs), for half the pay but a huge boost in happiness. Their partner might not like it, but they're not going to jail over it.

But then they get separated - you no longer have that choice, or you go to jail. It seems orwellian.