Polygamy is an acceptable practise in the modern world

Thank you for your response. I will first give my rebuttal and then give my argument on why I don't feel polygamy is acceptable in the modern world. Rebuttal Pro tries to argue that social reform is good for society and of course this is true however I do not see how this is a valid argument for polygamy. Here is a definition for social reform: "Social reform refers to any attempt that seeks to correct any injustices in a society. People who are involved in social reforms do so with the aim of improving the quality of life." (http://www.ask.com...) Social reform is an invalid argument for polygamy as my opponent has failed to show mere benefits of polygamy. As my opponent has showed no connection between social reform and polygamy he might as well have said that "social reform is good for society therefore rape should be legalized". Again my opponent argues that it is hypocritical to deny a human being the right to marry two or more spouses if we are allowed to change marriage based on desire e.g. gay marriages, however where is the line drawn? If we are to allow all marriage desires then should we allow men to marry little girls? or people to marry animals? etc. It's all well and good to say that marriage desires should be fulfilled however we must draw a line and I feel that polygamy steps over the line. Yes of course people cheat all the time however cheating is practically unanimously shunned worldwide. It seems as if you talk about cheating as something that is accepted in the world and therefore might as well be accepted in the form of polygamy however again the main problem with this argument is the fact that cheating is greatly shunned. My opponent's statistic that "68% of married women according to certain study carried out would cheat if they would not get caught" holds no backbone to the argument of accepting polygamy or not. Here my opponent is basically saying that 68% of women say that they would cheat if they didn't get caught so therefore we should embrace polygamy (a form of cheating) with open arms. My opponent states that "If cheating is such a common occurrence why then is polygamy shunned". However again, I must reiterate the point that cheating is NOT seen as acceptable. Yes cheating is a common occurrence however it is in no way commonly accepted, that is mainly why polygamy is shunned. Now my arguments against polygamy in the modern world. 1. If a woman doesn't get along with her husband, they don't have to work it out, the man can just turn to his other wife (wives) and ignore her. She has no choice but to be submissive and helpless. This is the essence of the master and slave relationship. 2. Polygamy produces excess men. For every man who marries 4 women, three men can't find a wife. They will never have kids or buy a house or need to work hard and contribute to the economy. In countries where it is practiced, they tend to turn to gangs and rebellions. 3. Only the most wealthy man can afford it, but many others will take on too many wives and children and then expect the government to take care of them. This leads to major family crisis and money issues. For example, The FLDS polygamous Mormon sect took in millions in government money to keep going. 4. With polygamy wives have to compete for affection, time, food, and essentials for their own children. Men have little interest in being the referee. They often turn the money over to one wife and all others have to beg for items. They all want the best for their own kids at the expense of the other kids. Inequality among wives and children is inevitable. 5. Polygamy is mainly practiced in backwards countries (http://en.wikipedia.org...). No one would want to move to one of these places. It only works when women's rights are eliminated so they have no choice. Again polygamy is a very unequal, and slave and master-like practice. Basically polygamy is a miserable life for all but the dominant husband. If we were to accept polygamy in the modern world we would be heading in a sheer backward direction. Now here are some facts/statistics: A new study out of the University of British Columbia documents how societies have systematically evolved away from polygamy because of the social problems it causes. (http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca...) Polygamous households contain jealousy and conflict among co-wives and Ethnographic surveys of 69 polygamous cultures reveals no case where co-wife relations could be described as harmonious. This leads to the tearing up of families.(http://www.jstor.org...) For all these reasons I don't see how polygamy is an acceptable practice today. I look forward to your response.