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Polygamy

Read the OP and answer

  • Yes

    Votes: 25 58.1%
  • No

    Votes: 18 41.9%

  • Total voters
    43

the makeout hobo

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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?
 
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?

As long as the other current marriage rules apply absolutley yes!
As long as its between CONSENTING ADULTS i have no problem with it because while I may never do it, its just like Gay marriage, its none of my buisness and has no effect on me.
 
As long as the other current marriage rules apply absolutley yes!
As long as its between CONSENTING ADULTS i have no problem with it because while I may never do it, its just like Gay marriage, its none of my buisness and has no effect on me.

I'm assuming that all other marriage laws apply, like only between consenting adults.
 
I couldn't care less who consenting adults marry. So why wouldn't I vote for it? I have no reason NOT to.
 
Who other people want to marry has absolutely no bearing on me whatsoever. Therefore, I'd vote for it.
 
I voted yes because Im greedy and want more than one wife :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
 
Voted yes. I see no reason to vote no. But I would like to point out that I don't think these sort of things should be subject to popular vote. It's no one else's business but my own if I want more than one husband. I do think it would require a complete rewrite of a lot of laws regarding benefits, inheritance issues and child custody though. Polygamy would be more complicated for the government to deal with as it involves more than two people.
 
The state should get out of the marriage business all together.
 
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 think that the government should get out of marriage altogether. And not only do I think polygamy should be legal, I think multiple marriages should be legal as well.

By that, I mean let's say a man has several wives. While those women are married to him and he to them, I also think those women should be allowed to maintain a marriage to other men. It seems only fair to me.

With regards to all this, I believe the only thing the state should have any control over is enforcement of child support by the biological mother and biological father of a child. I also think DNA tests should be done to determine the biological father of a child, and he should be the one to provide child support for those children he sired. That's about it, though.
 
I am in favor of polygamy, as long as it includes multiple male and female spouses. I get confused about how much of a role the government should play in defining these things. There are implications for the government relating to benefits, inheritance issues and child custody (as Arcana XV pointed out) and taxation. If the government removed all definitions of marriage, then that may be the same as defining that anyone could marry. It may be better for the government to define civil unions forming incorporated entities with two or more adults that would be relevant for benefits, inheritance issues and child custody (as Arcana XV pointed out) and taxation. Then let the marriage stuff fall to the churches.
 
Anyone who wants more than one wife is crazy if you ask me. Whatever floats their boat.. One wife is bad enough, thats all I'm saying.
 
I would vote yes. I don't see the big fuss about it.
However many aspects of laws would need to be rewritten to accommodate the change.
 
Anyone who wants more than one wife is crazy if you ask me. Whatever floats their boat.. One wife is bad enough, thats all I'm saying.

You need a girl from one of the stans :mrgreen: theyre quiet and do what you say and clean everything and raise the kids for ya.
 
Now that you mention that, I would like two of those.
 
Depends. I would want extra rules in place to protect the members of the marriage. I think it should be legal to have a group marriage, but not so much multiple wives or husbands. And it would be important to have rules in place for some of the problems that could be easily anticipated beforehand, especially rules regarding someone who wants to get out of the marriage and who actually has say over the medical and legal decisions. I would not just vote for it just because it was proposed. Plus, there is much more of a potential for this to be abused than any two-people only marriage. With couple marriages, someone who is trying to scam the system is limited by the fact that if they do want to actually get married to someone they would truly consider a spouse, then they have to divorce from the scam marriage first. On the other hand, if the rules were just that you could enter into the contract as many times as you wanted with different people, then what is to keep people from taking several spouses, who may or may not know about each other, just to get extra benefits. And, if they don't know about each other, then that leaves a potential for huge problems concerning estate and entitlement benefits.
 
Depends. I would want extra rules in place to protect the members of the marriage. I think it should be legal to have a group marriage, but not so much multiple wives or husbands. And it would be important to have rules in place for some of the problems that could be easily anticipated beforehand, especially rules regarding someone who wants to get out of the marriage and who actually has say over the medical and legal decisions. I would not just vote for it just because it was proposed. Plus, there is much more of a potential for this to be abused than any two-people only marriage. With couple marriages, someone who is trying to scam the system is limited by the fact that if they do want to actually get married to someone they would truly consider a spouse, then they have to divorce from the scam marriage first. On the other hand, if the rules were just that you could enter into the contract as many times as you wanted with different people, then what is to keep people from taking several spouses, who may or may not know about each other, just to get extra benefits. And, if they don't know about each other, then that leaves a potential for huge problems concerning estate and entitlement benefits.


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 would tend to oppose it, though probably not real actively. I do not see it as necessary like I see gay marriage(before some one goes into the whole hypocrisy thing, remember, being gay is something you are, polygamy is something you do, completely different), I don't see it as benefiting society, and the laws involved would be incredibly complex.
 
I would tend to oppose it, though probably not real actively. I do not see it as necessary like I see gay marriage(before some one goes into the whole hypocrisy thing, remember, being gay is something you are, polygamy is something you do, completely different), I don't see it as benefiting society, and the laws involved would be incredibly complex.

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.
 
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.

Most men in my home country have more than one wife and yes, it is recognised.
 
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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.


Methinks someone else read Friday at some point. :mrgreen:
 
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.

Wow, sounds like a time share. ( And we all know those are scams ;) )

Anyway, I kind of agree with Redress.I wouldn't really oppose it, but I don't really see the benefit. The laws would be extremely complicated, and there could be some very messy divorces legally speaking. Also most poly people I've come into contact with aren't that big into marriage anyway. So I don't really see a huge benefit to society, as I see with allowing gay marriage.
 
Methinks someone else read Friday at some point. :mrgreen:

It was my first Heinlein book! :) That screed I wrote probably comes verbatim from the story line. :2razz:
 
Wow, sounds like a time share. ( And we all know those are scams ;) )

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!
 
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