You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

NancyLebovitz comments on Poly marriage? - Less Wrong Discussion

-9 Post author: h-H 06 June 2012 07:57PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (127)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: shminux 06 June 2012 10:11:08PM *  12 points [-]

I'd wait for the current struggles over gay marriage to die down

It has died some time ago in more socially progressive countries, but none recognize a group marriage, so, I agree, clearly social mores are not the only or even the main issue.

My guess would be that, just like in Physics, in Law the general n-body problem (ahem) is much less tractable than the two body problem. I suspect that there are many relevant legal issues that have not been even touched and will have to be addressed, before a reasonable group marriage framework can be constructed. Child custody/support/rights, potential for spousal abuse are some of those.

On general grounds, one would also expect the stability of such a union be much less than that of a 2-person one, thus reducing the need for legal protection. Most polys freely admit that they have a "primary" and one or more secondaries, who are not in an equal position. Again, the analogy with orbital motion is quite interesting, but I will not push it further.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 09 June 2012 06:56:32PM -1 points [-]

I don't have statistics on poly relationships, and I doubt that anyone has good statistics.

Still, so far as raising children is concerned, I think you're conflating two situations. A poly relationship might be considered unstable if one or more people leaves, but if a core group remains raising children, it might be more stable for children than a couple that breaks up.