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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Even beyond any religious objections, polygamy is not a victimless crime. The laws against bigamy protect the first wife, who could lose most of the benefits and security of marriage without her consent. [/quote]
If someone is victimized there are already laws in place to protect them.  What [i]benefits [/i]would be stolen from the first wife?  How would her [i]security[/i] be jeopardized?[/quote]

Seriously? Marriage is a contract with shared benefits and responsibilities. The wife's share of the family property, retirement, and assets would be jeopardized, as would her children's share of support from the father, if he can just keep adding more wives and children. In most of these cases, the women do not earn much income on their own and are dependent on their husbands. The wives are only getting married once. It is the husbands who have multiple marriages. [/quote]

OK, but you do understand that in no way do our current laws protect women from this problem in divorce and remarriage, right? [/quote]
There is also no protection from either spouse going out and having affairs.  Either spouse having children with someone else, or either spouse spending money frivolously on others.  And as you said, it's a contract, so the fist wife could always add language to the contract to add whatever protections she deems appropriate.[/quote]

Some benefits for surviving spouses are written into law for retirement benefits, Social Security benefits, tax benefits. I can't withdraw money from my retirement accounts or change my retirement benefits without my wife signing her consent.

There are state law provisions for dividing joint marital property in a divorce - some states more than others.

All of those benefits and protections would be watered down if the husband could add another wife without settling up with the first wife first. [/quote]

Well truthfully they get watered down in divorce too. [/quote]

But the first wife gets to negotiate and agree to the divorce settlement before the second wife gets a claim on the husband's assets. Not so if the husband is allowed to have add a new wife without settling with the first one. [/quote]

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