A member of our top-notch copy staff, Rob Horning, is quite the economic philosopher, and we are fortunate that he has decided to enlighten us about an interesting debate being waged in academic circles on that is always an intriguing topic: polygamy. Take it away, Rob:
What if polygamy wasn’t just for renegade Mormons? Recently captured polygamist Warren Jeffs has garnered a somewhat surprising endorsement for his liberal attitude toward wedlock from Nobel-Prize-winning economist Gary Becker, who sounded off on the subject not long ago on the blog he co-writes with jurist Richard Posner.
"Women choose their partners, and refuse to marry men who they do not want to marry, regardless of their parents' feelings or the ardor of suitors," argues Becker. "In this world, a woman would not have to enter into a polygamist household if she would not want to. Would-be polygamist men would have to persuade second or third wives that it is worth it, because of their wealth, good looks, kindness, or in other ways. If she is willing to become an additional wife, why should laws prevent that?" Why, indeed.
Not everyone has the combination of "wealth, good looks, kindness," to pull off such a lifestyle. But if laws permitted anyone to set up their own harem, what would the consequences be? Posner, writing in response to Becker, believes that this would "reduce the supply of women to men of lower incomes" and "increase the demand for prostitution" — ironically among those least likely to afford it. Also, because of the concentration of children in a series of related polygamous households, wealthy polygamists could form clans that "can become so powerful as to threaten the state's monopoly of political power." Extrapolate that logic, and it would seem that Posner would have us believe that beyond monogamy lies megalomania — that Warren Jeffs was a budding potentate, a would-be Ghenghis Khan who had thrown off the marriage bond en route to staging a coup d’état. No wonder some conservatives are so keen on “defending marriage.”
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