Polygamy is an acceptable practise in the modern world

Thank you for your cooperation Proceeding with Pro's argument: Con agrees that social reform is good for society "and ofcourse this is true". Con however argues that he does not how this is a valid argument for polygamy. Con proceeds to define what social reform is. Pro argues that the continual discrimination of a person's right to choose to marry more than one woman is an injustice in society. As stated prior same sex marriage is social reform, if we can change the meaning of a spouse to mean marrying a person from one's gender, there is absolutely no reason that we should deny consenting adults the right to choose to marry more than one spouse, can we not alter the definition of spouse? For what reasons should we deny adults, their fundamental right (freedom of choice). The United States carrying with a progressive constitution was founded on the the principles of individual liberty, personal privacy and equality. Con adopts the slippery slope argument, asking where do we draw the line, should we allow men to marry little girls? Ofcourse not, the operative word is "little" little girls are not adults, Pro argues that polygamy between consenting adults does not create a situation where people would be allowed to so drastically change the definition of marriage to include an instance where an adult male marries a little girl who by virtue of her age does have the capacity to understand the nature of marriage and more importantly does not have the capacity to consent to such marriage. The same rings true to the animals example, you cannot equate the actions of consenting adults to a marriage between a human and an animal, Do animals he capacity to consent? ofcourse not, therefore that argument is invalid Going back to the founding principles of the United States, Pro argues why should we deny consenting adults an act which does not harm any the parties concerned. The purpose of prohibition of an act is to prevent some form of harm being committed or suffered by the parties involved. For example drugs are illegal in most states because it is presumed that these drugs have a harmful affect on the users and on children who those users are in contact with. Pro asks, what harm arises from an adult marrying more than one CONSENTING spouse Cheating may be "shunned" however it is becoming more and more socially acceptable, an example is the evolution of the law, in South Africa it was a crime to cheat however with the progression of time this archaic law melted away from the law as it was no longer applicable in the modern world. However that is irrelevant Pro will assume for a moment that cheating is greatly shunned. Pro does not see how this helps Con's argument in anyway. Lets assume cheating is shunned, how does that in anyway relate to polygamy; Assume you are married to wife A, wife B and Wife C, if you sleep with either of these wives you have not cheated because they are essentially your wives, infact one could argue you acted more honestly by marrying women you knew you loved, had you not married one and not all three you probably would have cheated. Which means you have acted in a manner that is "shunned" by society, however by marrying all 3 you avoided this scenario, you acted honestly. Society values honesty Proceeding to Con's arguments against polygamy 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." This is very presumptuous and a very shaky argument, What exactly is this based on? Furthermore If she feels she is being ignored she always has the option to seek a divorce. With a Master slave relationship there is no such remedy. 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" Please refer us to these countries. The excess men argument is invalid because this assumes that every single woman on the planet will/intends to/wants to/can get married. Some women are career women who don't have any time to get married, some elect never to get married for whatever reason. Furthermore one does not need to get married to buy a house, have children or to work hard. 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" This again is invalid anyone can afford "it", assume Mr X works, he's not very wealthy, lower class at best (in terms of socioeconomic classes) he marries Fiona, who also works in the company Mr. X works for, they receive similar wages, Mr. X proceeds to marry Susan who works as a hairdresser at a salon, he then marries Angela who is a baby sitter, all these women work, Mr. X doesn't need to be very wealthy, on their own each of these women can probably take care of themselves. Since we no longer live in a society where men are the only breadwinners Pro fails to see the validity of Con's argument 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." Again this is very presumptuous, whose to say the husband will not give each wife a fair amount of time and affection (the food and essentials argument is invalid because it assumes that the husband by virtue of being male is the sole breadwinner) 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." Polygamy happens to practiced in South Africa, a country with arguably the most progressive constitution http://www.southafrica.info... If you took time to read the constitution of South Africa you would find that Section 9 grants equality to all regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, to name but a few. Polygamy also practiced in South Africa in respect of people's freedom to exercise their cultural and religious beliefs. Pro fails to see how this logic adopted in South Africa and other "backward countries" is flawed in anyway "Now here are some facts/statistics:", fair enough, here are some of Pro's facts supporting polygamy http://www.psychologytoday.com...