Polygamy -- a topic you can't avoid these days (e.g., Warren Jeffs, Big Love, Mitt Romney) -- is easy to disparage. But frankly the antipolygamy arguments just don't seem convincing. Let's run through them:
Polygamists marry underage women. True, some do. But these are the fundamentalist megalomaniacs. Polygamy isn't any more inherently oppressive to women than monogamous male-female marriage. Should we abolish booze because Lindsay Lohan can't hold her Jack Daniel's?
If you legalize polygamy, it's a slippery slope, and next you'll have to legalize men marrying goats. Not really. Two adult women who are capable of saying yes or no do not equal one mute goat.
Polygamy is an affront to God and the Bible. Perhaps. But depends which part of the Bible. In the Old Testament, polygamy is accepted without judgment. David has eight wives. And Solomon holds the record with 700.
It's bad for the kids. The studies are vague. And actually, anthropologist Philip Kilbride says that polygamy would reduce the divorce rate and be better for kids.
There would be a single-man surplus. This is actually the most realistic and severe problem. The math is simple: The rich men will snap up several women. Sergey Brin will rack up Solomon-like numbers, leaving the rest of us schmucks with our peckers in our hands. (This will be true even if polygamy is a two-way street, as it should be. Women should be allowed to marry multiple men. But most won't. DNA and testosterone say that men will be the ones who do most of the spouse collecting.)
And yet...so what? Isn't that the point of the free market? Why should love be any different from business? It'd be good incentive for us other guys to start our own damn search engine.
If the government legally required that all men earn the same salary, that system would be described in a book called Das Kapital. And that's the marital system we're living under.
Polygamists of the world, throw off your chains.
Source: http://www.esquire.com/features/man-at-his-best/polygamy1207
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