and I didn't even get into how to best decide which spouses cuddle with which spouses on a nightly basis. One big Rock, Paper, Scissors contest!
dear god, imagine what it would be like if you shared a house with 2 or 3 women, that all had PMS :shock:
You don't see a family, as an economic entity and as a child rearing entity, as benefiting society when it can broaden the adult representation beyond 2 people? In that scenario, I see that some adults would chose to raise children and care for the household, some adults would pursue education and sabbaticals, some adults would choose to work and develop their career or start businesses, and some adults would go on adventure and play (sailing around the world). More adults can ensure economic stability while others pursue their other plans.
Set it up as a incorporated civil union. You may be required to buy shares to enter the family. You hold a percentage of assets and liabilities. If you decide to divorce yourself, you get out the percentage you own. Divorce maintains family stability.
There are a lot of advantages.
I am not confident that polygamy would be a benefit to children. If you have some data to support the idea, I would have to rethink things some.
I am not confident that polygamy would be a benefit to children. If you have some data to support the idea, I would have to rethink things some.
Personally, I think the U.S. lives in a de facto state of polyamory. After all, people aren't required to be married to have intimate relationships or bear children with another person. A woman can have several kids from different men, and men can have kids from different women. Just because it isn't official doesn't mean anything.
If your state were to propose a law or ballot initiative allowing for persons to be married to more than one partner, would you support it? Why or why not?
Whatever other complaints we might have against polygamy, it is fundamentally a more stable and more responsible lifestyle than is being practiced by millions upon millions of Americans.
Yes, I agree with you that religious fundamentalists and welfare frauds are irresponsible and unstable, and that the Mormon offshoot cults are degenerate in general. (I have nothing but respect for the mainstream Mormon church.) However, I would argue that it is their contempt for American mores and government that makes them degenerate, and not merely their practice of polygamy. They're more like criminal gangs than normal citizens; it's hardly fair to compare them to upright citizens and say that the results would be similar.
Nope. Too complicated, plus it'd get easily abused by people trying to earn tax breaks.If your state were to propose a law or ballot initiative allowing for persons to be married to more than one partner, would you support it? Why or why not?
I would support this as long as it was voluntary and involved only adults. My concerns with polygamy, having lived in the state of Utah for 10 years, was the rampant welfare fraud and child abuse (including child sexual abuse) within some of the polygamist sects. I have no moral objections to polygamy.
The first thing you'd have to say is that it all has to be open and aboveboard; if Spouse1 is already married to Spouse2 and Spouse3, they'd have to ALL legally consent and sign papers to that effect before Spouse4 could be added to the marriage. Public notification of some sort, like an add in the local paper, also.
That would be assuming you allowed "add-ons" after the initial marriage.
To answer the question, I would probably stand neutral and neither support nor oppose, depending on the details. If the law enabling polygamy looked badly written, ill-considered or otherwise not covering all the bases that needed to be covered, I might oppose that particular law.
Polygamy has a long established history and was a successful family/reproductive/child-rearing institution for millenia in many cultures. Therefore I have no particular societal objections to it, nor do I have any substantive moral criticism to make, though I consider lifetime monogamy to be more ideal.
On consideration, it is possible that polygamy might actually make marriages more stable and provide some advantages in childrearing. A man with three wives already has his "variety" built into his marriage; perhaps that would cut down on adultery. Joe and Jane might have regular jobs while Mary and Sue tend to the home and the children.
IIRC the OP said "polygamy". Whether he meant polygamy alone, or also polyandry or polyamory I don't know, though I would speculate he probably did mean "group marriages of whatever makeup". Historically polyandry has been practiced but rather rarely; offhand I don't know that polyamory or group marriages have any historical precedent. The idea of polyamorous or group marriage doesn't blow my mind, though, having read a lot of Heinlein growing up. :mrgreen:
However the social and interpersonal dynamics of such arraingements ought to be studied and given careful consideration before we go there. We don't want to frack up the institution of marriage more than it already is, we'd want to have some idea of how well polyandry or polyamory would work before we instituted such plans.
Polyandry would be reproduction-neutral: that is, one wife and multiple husbands would produce no more children than one husband-one wife, because there is only one womb involved.
If all of that were legally instituted, I think polygamy would be somewhat uncommon but the most popular; polyamory/group marriages the next most popular; polyandry the most rare. I doubt there are many men who would see benefits in sharing a wife with one or more other men, and as noted the historical precedent is relatively rare.
At any rate, it is an intresting question as there is much to discuss on the subject. :mrgreen:
Does anyone here have friends who live in a polyamorous/group relationship, regardless of the lack of legal recognition? I'd be curious as to any insights you might have. I knew a fellow who lived in such a household, a neo-pagan group to be specific, (and yes they had kids), but we didn't know each other well enough to discuss the juicy details, lol.
-- I know some people in open dating relationships, and it works as long as everyone is honest and equal and supports the arrangements, but I don't personally know anyone who has taken it to marriage levels.
Yes but there certainly has to be some stipulations on it. The most common practitioners of polygamy are the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. Polygamy of the type they promote is absolutely disgusting and wrong. Girls only 13 years of age married to men almost 4 times their age, that is very, very wrong but they get away with it by isolating themselves from society --
I often longed for a 2nd wife when I was married, someone who was good with kids and would be happy staying home and raising mine while I earned a paycheck. --
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