Polygamy

In the second of my worlds there is currently some national debate on the subject of polygamy. The government currently forbids civil servants from having more than one wife. Some interesting quotes from today's national English paper:

A leader from the country’s largest religious organization said, "Not every man is up to being a husband, unlike women (who make good wives). Therefore, polygamy is nature's way of balancing the supply of women wanting to be wives, with the demand of men who are up to being good husbands." He also said, “every man is polygamous by nature.”

A female legislator said: "Polygamy is better than infidelity. Think of a 25-year-old widow -- she will need a husband to finance her children. If polygamy is banned, things would only get worse for her." (Is this legislator from Mars? I wonder how many marriages like that she knows of? I certainly haven’t heard of anything like that happening in my area. The second or third wife is invariably younger and has NO kids (or if she does they get left with relatives.) Sorry, it’s a nice dream, but it seems that men are not looking for other men’s kids to support.

Some say that outlawing polygamy would increase infidelity and prostitution. Others say it would be good to outlaw it because it is harmful to women and children. What would be really interesting would be to see some statistics.....