Considering that divorce is such a reliable cash cow for attorneys, social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, debt collectors, the federal government and courts around the US, it was probably inevitable that lenders would find a way to make money off the business.

An article in the New York Times explores the growing business of divorce financing, which usually involves lenders taking on expenses in high-stakes divorce cases where women are leaving wealthy husbands.

One woman featured in the article, Michelle Pont, was having a hard time getting ahold of money to pay her expensive attorney bills, because so much of the family fortune was tied up in investments:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Michelle Pont and her husband amassed millions of dollars in properties and investments from a freight-hauling business that they started with a single stake-bed truck in 1991. They bought a four-bedroom home, then a second home, a vacation home, a motor home and half a dozen cars.

But when Ms. Pont decided to seek a divorce last year, she quickly ran out of money. She had no job. Her husband controlled the family’s investments. A few months of legal bills maxed out her credit cards and drained her retirement account.

Note how Mrs. Pont is described as an equal partner in a freight hauling business! I worked in transportation when I was a kid, but I never saw a woman do any more than dispatch or bookkeeping. Driving, servicing the vehicles, loading freight, unloading freight, warehousing — all men’s jobs. And you can bet a guy who started with just one truck did a whole lot of that stuff himself. But now the woman wants half + expenses, as usual…

Because this is generally the law of the land, she’ll probably get it, and that’s why financing these divorces is good business.

The company that is financing Mrs. Pont’s divorce, Balance Point Divorce Funding (gotta love the name), is kicking in $200,000, which should suffice to tide her over until the divorce is finalized, upon which Balance Point takes a share of the settlement.

Balance Point’s founder, Stacey Napp, started the company with money she pried away from her husband in a lawsuit she filed after she’d already signed settlement papers. It seems that she found out he made a big sale after giving her a half million dollars and a house, and she wanted a piece of the proceeds. After seven years of litigation, she got the money, and used it as startup cash.

According to Ms. Napp, most of her customers are homemakers with husbands who own businesses. However, the guys are not exactly fat cats, but rather the pull yourself up by your bootstraps types who have always been an integral part of American productivity. Unfortunately for these types of men, most of whom are from working or middle class families, they tend to marry women from their own demographic, and let’s face it: working and middle-class American women aren’t known for fidelity and constancy. The men are also less likely to have prenups than your typical scion of the upper class or corporate CEO, which makes them easy pickings for divorce robbery.

Lest some one argue that Ms. Napp is also an entrepreneur and deserves respect for her efforts, one should make a distinction between parasitic businesses and productive businesses. Some businesses build wealth, while others take it away. Balance Point falls in the latter camp. Every business this woman eviscerates for the benefit of bored housewives means fewer jobs, a poorer economy, and less overall wealth.

As the decline of the US continues apace, these carrion bird ventures are proliferating, hurting the public in aggregate for a minority of selfish, immoral people who could care less about the world around them so long as they have a fab house and car and enough money left over for the seasonal trips to Vegas.

Consider another one of Ms. Napp’s clients, who is using her Balance Point loan in an attempt to seize properties her husband put into a trust for his children from a previous marriage. What kind of person does this? A productive citizen, or a callous, scheming thief?

If our society and law reward such disgusting people and practices, we should expect further acts of treason and betrayal, such as Bradley Manning’s data theft, and possibly outright sabotage from within. There can be no loyalty or allegiance to a nation of thieves and plunderers — obedience can only be coerced through fear.