[freespirited]

The biggest losers from polygamy are the poorer men who end up with no wives. Women benefit because polygamy increases their number of marriage prospects — and in traditional societies, marriage is often the only way for a woman to improve her status.

Of course the NYT has assumed that the only thing that matters to a woman is the man's pockets. Which might be the case if all other things are equal among available men, but that's never true.

I have a big problem with this argument. It works for Tierney because he can't see beyond the current generation of women in the show. But ideas like prohibiting polygamy arent just based the present but looking longterm.

Let's say there are 500 males and 500 females in a small town. If the women share a relatively small fraction of the more prosperous males rather than mate with all of them (or almost all of them), over time the population will become progressively more inbred.

Did you learn about the ill effects of inbreeding in high school biology? Well forget all that. A New York times reporter has decided that you are an overwrought conservative.

[Valpal1]

You are totally correct, the higher birth defect rate in muslim nations is directly related to the high level of consanguinous marriages and polygamy and well documented.