One thing I know from reading comments on a news site recently is that there are some very vocal advocates for this already out there.
No, it’s a bad idea for several reasons:
• For gay marriage, the legal framework was already in place. Just apply the exact same laws for heterosexual marriage to gay marriage. Nothing had to be changed. For polygamy, the laws simply aren’t in place. There aren’t tax credits set up in federal law for multiple spouses. The laws aren’t in place to handle inheritance in the event of death or child custody in the event of divorce. Thus, if the Supreme Court were to order all US government entities to recognize polygamous marriage, a bunch of law would have to be created de novo, and no one would agree on what is fair, and it would be chaos.
• Society has no incentive to give extra money to some dude living with multiple chicks and making babies with them (which is what polygamy would be 98% of the time). Even most ancient society recognized polygamy as a bad idea, including the empires Rome and China. For every extra wife some guy gets, some other guy isn’t getting one. That leads to pissed off young males and social instability.
One should be able to form any type of household one wants, but society shouldn’t be obligated to pay for it in the form of tax credits or anything else.
Marriage recognition comes down to three things, in my view:
• Being “really” married. This is in the eye of the beholder, and, in my view, it’s stupid. The only reason to get married in 2015 is for the financial benefits provided by the tax code (and other money-related benefits). If you plan not to have kids, then it’s super-stupid: you’re just a glorified gf/bf (gf/gf, bf/bf) who has requested the state to regulate how you break up, in the event that happens (and guess what? There’s a good chance it will happen). If you have kids, it doesn’t matter much either, since the state is going to regulate how you break up anyway (child custody).
• Tax benefits and other money related benefits (including the ability to buy property as “spouse and spouse,” smoother inheritance, etc.). If this truly fits your needs, then go for it.
• Having the state regulate your breakup (divorce). The financially or socially weaker partner in a marriage may see this as a benefit.
Personally, I think the government should get out of the business of incentivizing marriage, home ownership, that kind of thing. Government should get out of the marriage business completely, and then all the arguments about what should or should not be recognized would be irrelevant.