I think Angela's solution, as outlined in the beginning of the thread, is likely the most fair and workable that can be come up with in our current society. At least, I can't think of a better one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by spirit4711  What does fairness to man or woman have got to do with the issue?
Child support is paid for the child by the parent who can afford it. The parents created the child and are therefore obliged to pay for the child. Don't make it more complicated than that.
If as a man you don't want to end up in a situation involving child support, don't make her pregnant. If you do, face the consequences.
If as a woman you don't want to end up in a situation involving child support, don't get pregnant. If you do, face the consequences.
Abortion is not the issue here. Getting pregnant or getting your partner pregnant and behaving like a responsible if unwilling parent is the issue.
BTW I am pro choice with respect to abortion. But linking abortion with child support is repulsive to me. |
The problem is that in practice, abortion is linked to child support. A woman can choose to abort a pregnancy for financial reasons. A man can not, because it's not his body, and therefore not ultimately his decision. In an ideal world, a man would be involved in such a decision, even if eventually overruled, and in many cases he is involved. Sometimes, he is not, either by his choice or sometimes because the woman isn't open to listening to what he has to say.
In any case, the fact remains a woman can choose to give up her rights and responsibilities to the child, but if she doesn't choose to do so, she can force the man to keep his responsibilities to the child, and he may or may not have his rights to the child. This is the nature of the imbalance that needs correction.
Incidentally, on a related note, if a man gets custody of a child, he has to fight the system to get any child support out of the woman. I know, because I've personally seen two different cases in which a woman was ordered to pay a man I know, and she refused on grounds of not earning enough. When brought to court, she was ordered, again, to pay, and still refused. No legal action was taken, no wages were pulled from her paycheck, no contempt of court charges were filed. Men in this position end up bent over by the system with their wages garnished, contempt charges filed, and possible jail time. Either men need to be granted the same clemency as women, or women need to be treated as harshly as men. As it is now, the legal system is out of balance.
Personally, I'm in favor of either abolishing the child support system, or seriously retooling it to be fair to both men and women. In the second case, I really think we would need to start from scratch, outlining the rights of the man, woman, and child involved, then drafting a system that could support all of those rights as fairly as possible. In addition, the court system should
never receive a cut of child support, especially a percentage cut. When they get a cut, they have incentive to slap as many child support payments on people as they can. Without that cut, they can go back to being fair and impartial.