I think it's only right that men should pay for the majority of all child
care expenses as women are incapable of taking on such a task. I now
realize that my father being a blue collar worker was the only one capable
of raising 3 children on his own, no woman could have accomplished that.


"Dusty" wrote in message
...
http://www.openmarket.org/2009/01/02...rt-guidelines/

Irrational Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines
by Hans Bader
January 02, 2009

Massachusetts has long had some of the most excessive child support
guidelines in the nation: for just one child, the father is ordered to pay
close to 25% of his gross income, or more than 35% of his after-tax
income, to the mother. This amount of money grossly exceeds the cost of
raising a child, and there's no obligation even to spend the money on the
child, rather than the mother. As a result, the father often has a
disposable income that is just a fraction of the income of the mother's
household.

But excessive as the guidelines are, the state courts are now promulgating
a child-support schedule that radically increases the rates by 60 percent
for middle-class households where the father and mother make similar
amounts (like $40,000 each or $60,000 each). The guidelines are not
rationally-related to the costs of rearing children.

The new guidelines are harmful to children, not just their fathers.
Children spend up to a third of their time in their fathers' care, yet
Massachusetts' child support guidelines financially destroy many divorced
fathers, leaving them chronically broke and thus unable to provide their
children a nice home to live in during visitation. The state child support
guidelines give fathers little if any reduction in child support payments
for the time and money they spend caring for their children during
extensive visitation, even though such care reduces the child-care costs
of the recipient mother and increases the father's expenses.

This financial havoc can't be justified by claiming that divorced fathers
had it coming: most divorces in this country are no-fault divorces
initiated by wives, rather than husbands (wives initiate about two-thirds
of all divorces, according to data collected by the National Center for
Health Statistics, and the many studies reviewed by Sanford Braver of
Arizona State University in his 1998 book Divorced Dads: Shattering the
Myths).

It is also frankly sexist: unlike nearby states, like Maine and
Connecticut, where fathers have some realistic chance of getting primary
or shared custody, in Massachusetts, trial judges tend to award primary
custody to mothers over similarly-qualified fathers, even when the fathers
are fit parents who have been very actively involved in the lives of their
children. Everyone knows that these guidelines are intended to milk
fathers to benefit their ex-wives (and their divorce lawyers). Prominent
divorce lawyers like Richard Crouch have noted that in practice,
child-support and spousal support laws are often applied in a sexist
fashion.

As excessive as the child-support guidelines are, alimony is often awarded
on top of it. Alimony is awarded in Massachusetts even to wives who have
committed adultery or engaged in domestic violence. (Most states award
alimony without regard to fault; a minority preclude alimony based on
fault, such as adultery; and some states that generally ignore fault still
forbid spouses who have perpetrated domestic violence to collect alimony.
A few states, like California, even award alimony to low-income husbands,
but in most states, courts are, in practice, much more willing to award
alimony to wives (even those who are quite capable of supporting
themselves) than to low-income husbands, even if the husband did something
praiseworthy like working to pay his wife's college bills).

I should note in closing that I am not divorced, have no child support
obligations, and no personal or family history of entanglement with the
family courts or divorce courts. My only connection to Massachusetts is
spending three years earning a degree at Harvard Law School, and reading
dozens of Massachusetts family-court cases. (Years ago, I also read the
child support guidelines of virtually every state).