Child Support Vs Welfare

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by markg91359

It makes total sense. If we grant your friend an exemption from paying his child support while he attends nursing school, than we have to grant an exemption to anyone else who claims they want to further their education. Pretty soon we'd have guys attending art school and virtually any school to get out of paying their child support for a few years. His attendance at school doesn't change the fact that there is a living breathing child that needs food, clothing, and shelter. If he doesn't pay the taxpayers have too.

The point is your friend made a baby. It took his wife to do it too, but your friend contributed.

Now, look, I'm not saying there isn't any situation at all where some flexibility shouldn't be allowed. The ones that come to my mind have to do with sickness, disease, and actual inability to find employment in a bad economy. However, those are the only exemptions that ought to exist. He shouldn't have had a child if he didn't want to support one period.

Jail has to remain as an option for those who won't pay child support for a couple of reasons:

1. Some guys don't respond to anything else. Only the the reality of incarceration will make them break down and deliver that monetary support the court has ordered them to provide.

2. Courts look pretty silly when they order something and can't enforce their orders. Jail means "put up or shut up".

3. I actually favor a prison sentence for the repeat violator who continually and willfully refuses to pay child support. IMO, its a greater crime than something like insurance fraud is because insurance companies are able to hire lawyers and accountants to protect themselves from such an occurrence. Mothers with young children lack a means to protect themselves and are the ultimate vulnerable victims. Its more of a crime than many people are willing to acknowledge. Parents who willfully fail to child support are not people worthy of respect.

What I don't understand is how jailing someone causes money to materialize from someone who literally is broke.

[2mares]

Originally Posted by eok

That just shows your prejudice against fathers. Plenty of women neglect their children. Your prejudice makes you assume fathers neglect their children more than mothers do. The reason fathers are absent is because courts in the majority of counties are prejudiced against fathers and rule against them, forcing them to be absent.

We need to make things fairer for everyone. One way to do that is to end child support and let children live with whichever parent can support them best. That's fairest to the children too, because the more money the parent has, the more opportunities the child has. It would also reduce parental alienation syndrome, which is a much bigger problem than most people think it is. And mothers who can't afford their children would have more time for their careers, which they need, so they can get out of poverty.

No it doesn't. It has nothing to do with gender, I was responding to this. Change the gender and my response stays the same.

Since enforcement against deadbeat dads moms doesn't work very well, a better solution, which would be fairer to everyone, would be to give women men the option to make men women totally responsible for any children the woman man has trouble supporting. In other words, she he should be able to go to her his local courthouse and file a paper stating that the dad mom is to be responsible for the child, and is to have custody. Then, if the dad mom fails to accept the child he she has legal custody of, and/or fails to support it, he she can be charged with criminal child abandonment and criminal child neglect. Criminal laws have a lot more force than civil laws.

Still cant force a parent to be a parent and this^^^^would only harm the child. Pssst, children are living feeling, human beings not pawns in a game of which parent can punish the other. No one wins.

As much as I believe there are many things wrong with family court I dont believe courts rule against when the petition for custody or shared custody nor do I believe the courts force them to be absent from their child's life.

I dont see what is not fair about requiring both parents to financially support their children. What could be more fair. It takes much more than money to parent. Not all mothers are in poverty but I do agree if one parent is really struggling to financially care for the child while the other is not the one better able to care for the child should have custodial custody IF THEY WANT IT.

[2mares]

Originally Posted by markg91359

Wrong. All fifty states have a law on the books that makes willful failure to pay child support a crime. In some states its a misdemeanor. In other states a felony. You can go to prison for over a year for not paying. The statute is only used for the worst offenders. It is not used for parents who miss a payment here and there. It is not used for those out of work or disabled. It is used for those who over a long period of time refuse to pay and have the means to do so.

Such a law should exist because some parents can pay and are simply refusing to do so out of anger over their ex-wife or girl friend. A child should not suffer because of this kind of issue. Also, those parents who do pay child support have a right to know that the system is aggressively pursuing those who do not pay.

Perhaps not for felony charges but for misdemeanor contempt the court will indeed jail a person for failure to pay if they are out of work. The non-custodial parent is expected to pay the calculated amount that was based on their actual earnings or potential earnings. In my state you get two adjustment hearing a year. By the time you actually get a hearing you can be arrested for failure to pay CS.

Originally Posted by markg91359

Parents should consider their current job status before engaging in reproductive choices that may have an eighteen year consequence.

Really? What planet have you been living on where you know you will have job security for the next 18 years. That train left over 30 years ago.