Benefits of Polygamy

In North American countries, the concept of polygamy often stirs up images of 14-year-old girls marrying 50-year-old man in a religious compound, and people naturally respond to the idea as "abusive" and "degrading to women".

The issue of forced marriages, or situations where free-will is not being respected, is definitely a problem that needs to be addressed. Girls/women simply should not be pushed into marriage without their own consent, or before they have the mental capacity to provide consent. However, forced marriages and polygamous marriages are not one-and-the-same; in a polygamous marriage, a woman can choose who she marries and whether she also values a polygamous relationship.

Therefore, laws should be in place to prevent forced marriages or marriages for people without the ability or mental capacity to provide legal consent. Laws to prevent polygamous marriages, however, should be abolished, and the entire practice should be legalized.

Before I go any further, let's clear up a few things. In North America, polygamy is typically synonymous with muslim marriages, and given the current political climate, anything muslim stirs irrational fear. With that in mind, I will point out that polygamy was legal in China, Japan, Korea, and many other Asian countries. A man with multiple wives and concubines was the standard for those who could afford the lifestyle. Samurais often had multiple wives, their lords had multiple wives, and until Americans defeated the Japanese in WWII, business men also had multiple wives. It was a normal practice until the Christian practice of "one-man-one-woman" marriage was instilled in Asia.

With that in mind, what is the benefit of polygamy?

One practical benefit of polygamy is the increased overall national productivity due to increased birth rate. Now, a nation's long run productivity is a function of the size of its working population, and the productivity of its working population. It is agreed that productivity per worker must be increased over time in order to elevate the living standard in the long run. However, in most developed countries, with the growing aging population, as boomers retire and exit the labour market, new labour population is needed to replenish it. This is a relatively simple concept. In fact, Canada has approximately 10 births per 1000 people, and a population growth rate of just less than 1%. Japan has less than 8 births per 1000 people, and a negative population growth rate (reference: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_bir_rat-people-birth-rate). Therefore, without massive increase in productivity that is exclusive to Canada, Canada is unlikely to remain competitive as the productivity levels of emerging nations increase (I note "exclusive" because productivity increases are likely to spread to other nations as well, normalizing the advantage in the long run).

Thus, another way to boost national productivity is to increase the workforce size, by boosting fertility rates. To take an extreme example: a woman with 15 kids in her lifetime will have created 15x more productive members of society than a woman with one child. Assuming equal access to education, a larger family will be able to generate more economic output than a small family. This is a simple fact. Similar fact is the USA has somewhat higher productivity (GDP per capita) than Canada, but its economy is significantly larger, due to its much larger population (reference: http://www.csls.ca/data/iptoct82010.pdf).

So how can Canada boost its overall fertility rate? One solution: polygamy. By allowing men and women to make free choices about who they want to marry, family sizes can grow much higher. Polygamous marriages have always yielded higher children count, and combining that with government-provided access to education, Canada can have a much larger and highly productivie workforce within 20-30 years. It will more than replenish the outgoing boomers.

Some experts like to point out that countries with legalized polygamy practices are typically poor. Typically, without fail, these experts are from countries that practiced monogamy, and they fail to point out that China was gloriously rich a few hundred (or even thousand) years back, when polygamy was legal and actively practiced. Japan grew to western-nation-level strength and prosperity prior to its defeat in WWII. Polygamy did not automatically push these countries into poverty. While two examples do not prove the polygamy will guarantee national riches, they do poke holes in assumptions that polygamous nations are poor as a result of it.

An added benefit of increased fertility through polygamy is that the ratio of parent/children is significantly reduced, lowering the collective burden that the younger generation feels when shouldering the health and social cost of the aging population. The increased tax revenue will also improve overall national innovation with respect to key strategic industries and nation-building activities.

So what is Canada waiting for?

Cliffs:
* Polygamy increases overall fertility (and population growth rate), which increases population size.
* Increased population is linked with increased workforce size, and as a result, increased national output
* Faced with an aging population that is increasing in size, Canada needs to act now to increase fertility and population rate. Polygamy is one such answer.