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I frequently see this phrase in the criteria for calculating the amount of alimony:
"To maintain the standard of living established during the marriage"
I would imagine that these laws were made by people with a modicum of intelligence but logically this makes no sense to me whatsoever.
The standard of living established during the marriage is based upon two people pooling their incomes and also sharing resources. When the partnership is broken up the standard of living of both parties is lowered because neither party as a single entity can afford the lifestyle that they could afford jointly.
Given the above how does it make sense for one party to maintain the standard of living of the other? This would naturally mean that one party would have to become even poorer at the cost of the other party maintaining his/her standard which seems extremely unfair.
This makes no sense to me so perhaps I am missing something? Comments?
In addition, why is the marital standard of living some sort of unalienable right? People's standard of living change all the time - they lose jobs, an emergency arises that increases their expenses etc. etc. Divorce is also a change in circumstance which brings with it a lower standard of living, why is it viewed by the courts as an exception for the spouse who has lower resources?
There shouldn't even be laws of government involvement in divorce, let alone marriage. I believe if a couple is going to divorce, they should just part ways without involving the biased courts.
That's because when the idea first arose, the overwhelming majority of marriages involved men working full-time and women being at home, often for the entire duration of the marriage.
It's something that's probably fated to go the way of the dodo eventually.
Generally speaking, the past financial contributions of both partners to the household, plus the expected income of both partners is taken into consideration. If your partner supported you through college and med school and, esp. if she gave up other opportunities to do this and if these foregone opportunties are lost forever or require substantial education or re-training to access, then you are screwed!
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