So why don't men just deposit their salary into their wives' bank accounts? It's all the same, isn't it? Legally 50%, no matter whose bank account it's in?

That's what I do. My salary goes into my wife's bank for her to dispose of as she sees fit. I figure I wouldn't be able to do my job without her help and she does take on most of the housework, so I figure she's entitled to the primary decisions on how money should be spent.

This is to suggest that the answer is local, and can be solved in the household.

My argument is that our entire economy needs to reward this behavior, because the entire economy benefits from it.

Localizing the solution prevents those who gain the most from not having to pay for child care, education, food and shelter for a future workforce from helping to pay for this extremely important part of our economy.

The money that I earn at work is the money of my wife and I already. My point is that the economy should be rewarding the work that she does during the day while I'm doing my office work.

I have a significant portion of our disposable income direct deposited in my wife's account. I pay all the bills from mine.

Legally, your premise is correct in most states. Practically it tends to play out differently in a divorce situation.

curious, why do you guys have separate accounts vs a joint account?

All of our accounts are actually joint. But she has the accounts she's primary on and uses, and I have the ones I pay the bills out of. Trying to manage finances while multiple people spend money out of one account and there are auto-pays for bills from the same account is simply too taxing for me to deal with.

most families i know have joint accounts but that might be a cultural thing.