In the FLDS raids (h/t Rick Fisk):
The FLDS church has skirted the polygamy laws – not that the laws are legitimate – by avoiding the marriage license. Fine. The state may not recognize unlicensed marriage, but they also have no legitimate legal authority to turn a religious institution into a "legal" institution. However, the FLDS goes a step further by having the "unwed" mothers apply for state welfare. They don't just want to live their lifestyle in peace, they want to have the people of the State of Texas pay so that they can afford to maintain so many wives and children.
So at the bottom of all this, of course, is the state! Since you'd have to be phenomenally wealthy to support 416 children and their non-working mothers, naturally the whole thing only works with state support. Sort of a funny thing to see how simply allowing the market to operate would take care of this whole situation if the state hadn't gotten into the marriage/welfare business in the first place: polygamy just ain't economically feasible for the average guy. Havin' all them wives is just so gosh darn expensive! What a screwy situation.
Apparently other polygamists have caught on, since they keep separate houses for their various wives, who are of course single mothers in the legal sense. Gee, I wonder if any of them take advantage of their single-mother (jobless?) status to claim welfare benefits. Welcome to America. The state giveth, the state taketh away.
JMM
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