Should divorce laws change?

Question

I find divorce laws to be sexist and change. There are many women who benefit by marrying a rich man and living off half his money and child support after a divorce occurs. I think that if our society wants to encourage equality for men and women then this practice should change.

Answer 1

i totally agree,we should all b treated the same.

Answer 2

I recently heard the exact same complaint from a man who's been ordered to pay $25 per month in child support and no alimony. He hasn't been paying for years, on account of him not wanting his wife and her current boyfriend to live it up on his hard-earned $25 per month. Because, you know, those wily women can sure make that $25 go a long way -- right?

Please, guys. If you hate your ex-wives, fine. But your own children? Why are some people so averse to the idea of helping raise their own flesh and blood? Why do they treat their own children as appliances -- unwilling to pay if they don't get to use them, as if the child were a car? In reality, most child support awards cover less than 1/2 of the actual costs of raising the child. I am not divorced (thank G-d), but where I live, the average child support would cover less than 1/3 of what I have to pay my babysitter to enable me to work full-time. Only in the parallel universe that exists in the brains of utterly irrational people does a child support award of $300 or $500 or $800 enables anyone to live it large.

The statutes are neutral on its face: a man is just as capable to benefit by marrying a rich woman and take half her money plus alimony and child support. Cases like that are not unheard of -- for example, check out Federika von Stadt's divorce, in which the husband got half her income for life merely for critiquing her during her warm-ups. If there are more women than men getting rich off a divorce, then perhaps you should consider the possibility that this reflects the inequalities in professional and business fields, rather than statutory bias.

To the poster above me: I know there is a whole class of people out there getting erections the size of Mount Everest at the thought of a prenup, but rest assured that a prenup cannot limit child support. You cannot bind a child -- or taxpayers -- by an agreement with your spouse. Such provisions are invalid as being against public policy. If you have kids, it's your responsibility to do your share to support them. Even if it means getting a somewhat smaller yacht than the next rich man.

Answer 3

Many states are starting to agree with this view (to a point). In several states, automatic alimony for the wife has been abolished, in favor of a system that looks at:

1. Assets gathered during the marriage
2. Contributions made in obtaining these assets
3. Current standard of living and prospects for maintaining that standard of living (education, work history, skills, earning potential, etc... of the disadvantaged spouse)
4. Pre-nuptual agreements on support
5. Child support issues
6. Other equitable issues (issues of basic fairness)

While I agree that child support guidelines are ridiculous, especially for the wealthy (there is currently a sport's stars wife who is claiming that $30,000 child support a month is not enough to raise her 2 children on), we men have to start realizing that while the system is changing, it will still be somewhat unfair to men. To this end, there should always be a pre-nuptual agreement specifying support/alimony obligations, and men should make better choices when choosing wives.

Answer 4

They are not sexist because they are gender neutral.

A man who marries a rich woman gets just as much as a woman who marries a rich man -- the formulas set forth in the law don't have any gender variable in them.

And child support goes to the child -- not to the spouse/.

And on top of all that, people can make any change the want to alimony (spousal support) by having a pre-marital agreement that defines how spousal support will work -- so, there's no need to change the laws for everyone, when anyone can change the rules for their own situation.

Answer 5

It varies from state to state, so it depends on what state you have the divorce in. Some states are no fault. Women have been in that situation you described just as much man have. If you don't believe me get a divorce in the State of CT.

Answer 6

Have you actually looked at those laws? Men can do the same thing to women.

Answer 7

Well, if a man and a woman hates each other they should divorce before it affects they're kids and someone could get killed....