Polygamy Is About Freedom of Consent

Marriage between two (or more) consenting adults

Polygamy and polyandry are still taboo subjects in most of the western world. However, the recent steps forward in marriage equality, specifically the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage this summer, have been forcing people to reexamine what it means to be in love, and whether love need exclusively be between two people.

After all, the argument for almost every marriage equality group has been something along the lines of: let consenting adults enjoy their union. Why, then, when we look at adding even one more person into the mix, everyone gets fussy? As long as we’re talking about informed, consenting adults, there isn’t much that makes this form of union different from any other. We have a right to privacy and the freedom to make any choice we want, so long as we don’t harm another person.

An interesting opposing argument focuses on economics, mainly taxes. There’s a tax break for two-person marriages, so clearly there ought to be similar tax options extended to those in polygamous marriages. But the problem here is that this is an easily exploitable system. Arguments can be made from either side here—suppose each member holds down a job, then there’s multiple incomes in one household, which would be how the system could be exploited as each person would pay fewer taxes than they would otherwise. People could enter into polygamous marriages for the sole purpose of receiving tax breaks that were meant to aid families. However, if there’s only one (or two) incomes in a large marriage, then it seems like there ought to be further tax breaks in order to help sustain the family. That isn’t even factoring in the children.

I cannot offer a definite solution, but there are ways to deal with this issue. A simple solution would be to give diminishing tax breaks split between each individual. It could simply be worked into marriage taxes, and for each additional spouse or partner, an additional modification would be made. Each extra level would be less and less, since each new member of the family could bring in another income and so overall there would be less need of a break. This way, each individual would have the same level of tax reduction, and it could be worked into our current system. Beyond that, taxes will just become more complicated—but if that was a legitimate complaint against marriage, we would all be single.

Now, I will mention that these arguments apply to polygamy and polyandry, as well as any mixes between the two. There are arguments against one or the other (or both) based on power struggles between male and female members, such as the male having too much power over his wives in a polygamous marriage, but to this I would return to saying it’s a decision that informed, consenting adults made. We might not like decisions some people make, but they are their decisions to make. We should not criminalize decisions, so long as no harm is done to another person.