The present child support system dates from 1975. It has given rise to the “child support model of marriage,” where a husband and father is no longer necessary — just his money.
Maybe we should just get rid of it. Whoever has custody of the child has to take care of it.
This would certainly remove incentives for women to blow up families and steal men’s children from them. We might see more father custody, a good thing overall. Maybe fathers should be given first choice of custody in divorce. Nevertheless, it brings up the question of who should get custody of the children. While today we tend to think about women who want to fool around with another man not their husband, nevertheless we should remember those men who want to fool around with another woman not their wife. One solution, adopted by the ancient Romans, was that husbands would primarily receive custody of their children. A new wife is probably not going to be very interested in a man that comes with children. She isn’t going to want to take care of another woman’s children (thus all the fairy tales that feature evil step-mothers). A man with children naturally wants someone to take care of them; and who better than their natural mother? Even if a man has a mistress on the side, the family is maintained.
I think that eliminating child support altogether would work pretty well for divorce. Whoever has the children takes care of them. But, the child support system arose from the problem of unmarried single mothers. It was intended, at least in part, to replace existing state welfare programs for single mothers, going back to at least the 1920s. From that point of view, it does make sense: If we are going to be supporting single mothers anyway, shouldn’t the biological father have some responsibility? This puts some of the risk and hardship of single motherhood on men, rather than women alone.
Today, we have reliable DNA testing, so that actual fathers can be identified. This is a relatively new thing. At the very least, we should make no man responsible for a child, who is not the biological father. Oddly enough, this would probably be good for single moms. One thing preventing men from taking up single mothers, and their children, is the risk of being liable for child support if you show even a small kindness to the woman’s children.
In recent decades, Republican and Conservative leaders have been ratcheting up the child support monster ever higher. Today, missing child support payments — even if a man loses his job — is about the only financial obligation that will land you in jail. And how are you supposed to make child support payments in jail?
Cornerstone 