Child Support: Should it be abolished?

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Some women use it as a threat when their boyfriends attempt to break up with them while they're pregnant or have had the child. It is nothing as another woman, I see it as a threat to men to make them stay until the child is 18, even if they're miserable. It is also a minor-discrimination against men. If a man knocks a woman up and he doesn't want to raise the child, it should be his choice and not hers. She shouldn't make him stay at all. Child support takes about 85% of a man's income and leaves him with a minuscule amount of money that is not even enough for a human to live efficiently. If anything, don't let the man have to give anything to the woman, let the government pay her. This would work good with single mothers.

[Independent voter]

We send dad's who don't pay child support to jail.

[Vanyali]

the problem with "let the government pay" is that you'd have to raise taxes or take them from somewhere else. it's much easier to say "mother + father = pay for child" than "mother + government = pay for child".

[xChurch]

Not without a suitable replacement to prevent the financial issues accompanied with such a proposal (IE a basic income). Allowing children to be raised in problem situations just makes them more likely to become problems for society as a whole down the road.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

So...use a contraceptive if you sleep with a woman and you don't want a child? WTF? If you get her pregnant, that is 50% your child. Take 50% of the responsibilities.

Some women do crazy stuff when they think their BF is cheating on them/wants to break up so they make them have a child so he can care for her more/stay with her

[hellosaltygoodness]

Absolutely. As long as automatic parental rights for fathers is also abolished.

[Xanjori]

Absolutely. As long as automatic parental rights for fathers is also abolished.

I know the bar was pretty low, but you succeeded in taking it even lower. You should be proud.

[Barnesworth]

I'm totally mixed on this one. I grew up with a dad that split and left my mother with mountains of debt and no child support. I've also seen it used like a weapon, first hand. I've dated a woman that wanted to spend their child support money on me one night and I had to tell her no and that the money was for her kid, not her. I've dated other women who have talked in ways that indicate that a portion of their reasoning behind getting larger child support payments have been to lash out at their ex that they perceived as having wronged them in some manner or another. My step brother moved out with me as a kid because their mother was buying drugs with their child support money, forcing him to have to buy them all heir clothes and sneak them cash along with doling out a large support payment.

It's complicated.

[xChurch]

Some women do crazy stuff when they think their BF is cheating on them/wants to break up so they make them have a child so he can care for her more/stay with her

That is no where near a prevalent enough problem to allow all men to bail on their children financially.

[AeneasBK]

I know the bar was pretty low, but you succeeded in taking it even lower. You should be proud.

Yeah I mean this one didn't even look as though it was trying from the offset. Deary me.

[glo]

You're making up that 85% number, you're delusional if you think that's accurate. Regardless, if you have a kid, it's your responsibility. It's not like the child had a say in whether or not it was born.

[Xanjori]

Also why do people never ever consider that child support goes both ways? Women do pay it too ya know.

[Vyxn]

I feel men should be allotted the same right as women are given. the ability to not want and to be able to terminate the responsibility of having a child. the same as women are allowed to do

[klogaroth]

You're making up that 85% number, you're delusional if you think that's accurate. Regardless, if you have a kid, it's your responsibility. It's not like the child had a say in whether or not it was born.

Indeed.

I dunno what the US laws are, but certainly in the UK 40% is the maximum income that can be taken. That 40% only ever occurs if substantial arrears have accrued through previous non-payment. If you're having 40% taken....it's your own fault.

The actual figure has a bunch of stuff that goes into it, but if you are paying for a single child that you don't have shared care of, you don't have any relevant other children in your household (ie ones that you are the parent or guardian of), and don't receive any benefits then you're looking at paying 12% of your income.

[Xanjori]

feel men should be allotted the same right as women are given. the ability to not want and to be able to terminate the responsibility of having a child. the same as women are allowed to do

You just need to be good at hiding the body.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Also why do people never ever consider that child support goes both ways? Women do pay it too ya know.

It is very rare.

[Barnesworth]

Also why do people never ever consider that child support goes both ways? Women do pay it too ya know.

Very rarely. It's hard for a father to get custody under almost any situation in many states. In California, my step brother's mother was a crack addict dating a drug dealer while my step father was a successful doctor and he couldn't get custody until she relinquished it by sending her kids to him and running away. Even then, he never got a dime from her.

[Xanjori]

Indeed.

I dunno what the US laws are, but certainly in the UK 40% is the maximum income that can be taken. That 40% only ever occurs if substantial arrears have accrued through previous non-payment. If you're having 40% taken....it's your own fault.

I think my dad paid around 20% of his wage (I think, not 100% sure.) It felt kinda stupid because I still lived with my dad, so my dad had to pay child support weekly for the wife leaving and taking the younger son, but because she stayed unemployed she never had to contribute towards me. At the very least they could recognise that him having to pay that much directly impacted my life.

To give credit to his wife she did try to avoid giving his name to the CSA, but they threatend her with court action.

[Revi]

No. If you decide to have a child, that's not something you can change your mind on. You can stop being a parent, but you can't leave the parent who's left with it struggling to cover the cost themselves.

[Xanjori]

Very rarely. It's hard for a father to get custody under almost any situation in many states. In California, my step brother's mother was a crack addict dating a drug dealer while my step father was a successful doctor and he couldn't get custody until she relinquished it by sending her kids to him and running away. Even then, he never got a dime from her.

See, I have trouble believing this, even in a country as backwards as the US you should have a court smart enough somewhere to judge this case properly.