From RFE/RL, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
Prague, 2 February 2005 (RFE/RL) -- A husband with several wives and many children usually spends his money on quantity rather than quality, and therefore his children receive a mediocre or even poor education. This, in turn, lowers the education level of those societies in which polygamy is a common practice.That is the conclusion of three Hebrew University professors in a report called "The Mystery of Monogamy." It is based on a study conducted in the African country of Ivory Coast.
Eric Gould is a Hebrew University economics professor and one of the authors of the report. He tells RFE/RL that the purpose of the research was to look at the correlation between polygamy and economic development, since all of the societies in which polygamy is practiced are developing countries, while monogamy is the common practice in all developed countries.
Gould says the overall impact of polygamy on developing economies is negative. "In general, wealthy men like lots of children and lots of wives. But the difference between developed countries and nondeveloped countries is how people get wealthy and a value of education in a society," he says. "So, in a nondeveloped country, men don't get wealthy through their education and through their human capital. They basically get land or another kind of wealth. They know their children are not going to get wealthy through education, and so forth. So, they prefer lots of children with a low level of human capital."
Polygamy belongs in the jungle or the desert.
What always puzzles me is what happens to the superflous men if some men have lots of wives? Do they make do with each other or a camel or two?
Another interesting article on polygamy, this time on how it breeds male violence. It might help answer your question, Interestd.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1100405845035&apage=1
Jsut what one expects from ignorant savages, more ignorance!
There are no "superflous" men, since girls out-number boys at birth, and men are killed in accidents or wars at a greater rate. This is why in destitute societies doweries are offered to potential grooms, *not* the brides.
In an Islamic or other totalitarian culture, the wealthy polygamist is more likely than not to be someone whose genes lean to the violent and manipulative (and so I consider Islamic societies to be human de-evolution chambers). In a free-market society (e.g., Hong Kong 'til 1997), the wealthy man was one of applied intelligence and ethics-tempered ambition -- the sort of person who, if you were an alien "ranching" humans, you'd want as your "seed bull" for siring superior offspring.
As far as education and sustinance go, they really are cheap stuff by western standards -- after a certain threshold of wealth is acquired, the difference between "maintaining" one wife, or ten, isn't horribly huge. (E.g., anyone with a six-figure income, US$, could easily afford ten wives and children provided he isn't foolhardy with his finances.)
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European prediction: Socialist Europe is an example of what's about to happen when the average IQ drops to the point that the very governments which rely upon stupid people to support them become run by those stupid people: Human evolution over there is about to "regress to the mean" -- which is the cold statistic terminology for indicating that a lot of stupid people are going die....in this case, from the outbreak of war.
How it'll play out, IMO: Governments over there are self-neutured; if Islamic gangs de-facto control many European urban centers, it's only a matter of time before native European street gangs form to counter them. I can easily imagine a scenerio where a skinhead group goes on a rampage in an Islamic apartment block (probably after a killing spree at a mosque [read: target-rich environment]), and kidnaps the women and girls....or just sets up camp to the run the place.
It'll be the return of the Vikings.
A husband with several wives and many children usually spends his money on quantity rather than quality, and therefore his children receive a mediocre or even poor education.
I think this statement speaks volumes about all of Islam.
Polygamy belongs in the jungle or the desert.
What always puzzles me is what happens to the superflous men if some men have lots of wives? Do they make do with each other or a camel or two?
Posted by: Interestd
They go on Jihad to Chechnya, or Kashmir, or Iraq, or Thailand, or East Timor, or Philippines, or Bosnia, or Kosovo, or Israel, or Sudan, or Nigeria, or……
If they want to have sex before going on jihad, they can have sex with a goat, but the must kill it afterwards and they are not to sell it locally, but they can sell it in the next village. (Don’t eat goats in a muslim country)
It's a numbers game demographics.In war they out number you.In democracy they out vote you.
Same outcome in developed countries, I would think. In developed countries, the polygamists would expect the state to pay for their multiple wives and hordes of kids. Thru welfare and all the other freebies. Seems like the monogamist Islamics are rather non-self-sufficient already, choosing to sit back and bonk for Allah, eight, nine plus kids, getting more money for every kid they whelp.
Add polygamy to the equation and it would cripple and collapse the welfare system even faster. And then they have that disgusting practise of just saying 'oh I divorce you" 3 times, and in comes the next naive young thing from some backwood Islamic hellhole to pop out the next passel, on the taxpayer's back, while discarded wife and kids are also supported on taxpayer's back. Say goodbye to your hardearned pensions that you contributed to for decades. That'll all go to paying for non-productive parasites who insist on practising their 'religious' freedom, so they can outbreed you and stick you under their boot in the near future.