# why would legal polygamy be such a problem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 12, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-legal-polygamy-be-such-a-problem/655536 "2013-04-12T19:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-legal-polygamy-be-such-a-problem/655536/81 "2013-04-22T04:30:33Z")
I rather like the idea of having a harem of bodacious college-age sexpots, like Hef’s grotto. In practice, though, the vast majority of polygamous marriages are business arrangements between a rich old man and his underaged bride’s parents. It’s not something I would defend. ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-legal-polygamy-be-such-a-problem/655536/82 "2013-04-22T07:24:52Z")
Marriage as an institution only exists in the context of the state, private property, custody of children, etc. so the “complexity” issue is a real one. If all you actually want to do is invite a bunch of your friends to live in the same house and maybe fuck each other sometimes with no other strings attached and everyone’s totally cool with it there’s no law that I’m aware of that’s stopping you from doing that right now? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Veeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@Veeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Veeg)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-legal-polygamy-be-such-a-problem/655536/83 "2013-04-28T21:43:23Z")
> [@Alzarian](#): > > A very popular “argument” used by politicians who wish to stand in the way of progress… er, gay marriage, is that it would somehow create a slippery slope that would lead to other forms of marriage, such as polygamy, bestiality, pedophilia, even marriage with furniture. > > Now, this is a rather odd tactic to take, in part because the same argument could have been used to prevent interracial marriages, which most people now are pretty okay with… or at least don’t seem to want to ban. > > However, I am perplexed as to why polygamy always makes this list. The other issues run into the problem of consensuality. However, if all parties are willing and consensual - well, I don’t see the problem. Live and let live. > > I just get a little irritated when the list of things that might come to pass if the slippery slope happens almost always includes polygamy… and they never get called out on it. > > Am I missing something? I wonder the same thing. The only thing I can think of is that it provides an opportunity for milking the welfare system for all it is worth! A husband could claim 10 spouses and 50 children as dependants in need of food stamps and incom assistance. But the matters of divorce and child custody and inheritance (concerns expressed by other posters) not complicated because even in polygamy it remains that Mike marries Judith. Mike’s four other wives do not marry Judith. In divorce, custody of mike’s and judith’s kids is granted to mike and/or judith if they are fit parents. Inheritance is the same if you have one spouse and 2 kids or 5 spouses and 50 kids…It is divided per the Last Will and Testament. Lacking that, it is divided thinly over the entire brood. ---
**Author:** ![Veeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@Veeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Veeg)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-legal-polygamy-be-such-a-problem/655536/84 "2013-04-28T21:57:08Z")
I don’t think so. It would be so if Mike marries Nancy and each of Mike’s other 7 wives also marry Nancy, but that isn’t what happens. Only Mike will marry Nancy and Nancy will marry only Mike. Their specific contract of marriage is between the two of them and no one else. Thus, dissolution of that contract is between only the two of them. If both Mike and Nancy are fit parents, then child custody is only between the two of them. Emergency contacts? No more complicated than that of a single parent who lists his mother, his sister, and his next door neighbor as contacts. Power of Attorney takes care of pretty much everything…married, partnered, related or not related, with regard to making medical and financial decisions. A Lat Will takes care of inheritance and if there is no Last Will…it goes through probate as it would in a monogamous marriage and everybody gets a tiny piece of the pie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-legal-polygamy-be-such-a-problem/655536.md?page=4)