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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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