Do modern western countries even have monogamy anymore? Cheating is so widespread that I almost want to laugh at the idea of monogamous America. Perhaps polygamy is just taking the dirty, hidden aspects of a supposedly monogamous system and bringing them out in the open.
Monogamy reduces major social problems of polygamist cultures (2012)
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Re: Monogamy reduces major social problems of polygamist cultures (2012)
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
But which is the cause, and which is the effect? Could it be that welfare benefits have reduced the necessity for a woman to hold on to a man for financial support, so these men are now "adrift" and more likely to end up incarcerated? It might be interesting to look at welfare benefits and incarceration rates before and after 1964.
The benefits are not the problem - you have a lot more generous benefits in Western Europe and UK and still they have lower incarceration rates than US. If they were the cause - the problem in Europe will be a lot worse. It is the other way around - remove the jobs from a community, men turn to crime - initiate "War on drugs" - and you have a positive loopback mechanism. That is multi generational.
>The benefits are not the problem - you have a lot more generous benefits in Western Europe and UK and still they have lower incarceration rates than US.
...That doesn't seem to me to be a proper control population.
Re: Monogamy reduces major social problems of polygamist cultures (2012)
#83How do we know which one is the cause and which one is the effect? Or that it's not just yet another case of correlation mistaken for causation? Do more intense levels of gender inequality lead to polygamous marriage, or does polygamous marriage lead to more intense levels of gender inequality?
It has nothing to do with gender equality. It has to do with economic inequality between males. Economic inequality between males means more and more women are competing for a smaller supply of wealthy males. Increased demand for top males leads to gender inequality as more and more women compete for a smaller pool of rich men, reducing the bargaining power of every individual woman and increasing the bargaining powe…
This assumes the females are completely dependent on the wealth of the males and I think this is less common than it has been in the past. Take the economic dependency out of the equation and female choice is much broader.
I think also, if wealth was the most important factor wouldn't it make sense for one female to have multiple male partners contributing? That would reduce the need to compete for 1 economically strong partner.