A Rejoinder to Mr. Price’s Rhetorical Query.
What’s wrong with men having equal custody so they can avoid child support? Nothing!
There is nothing wrong with men wanting to actually parent their children, then simply having his role reduced to nothing more than an arbitrary sum imputed from their check every payday, and perhaps some intermittent and infrequent “visits.”
So what’s stopping this? Basically, women on child support or welfare. Well, too bad for them. It would be better for the rest of us – including other women – if for once they didn’t get their way.
Of course.
Problem is, it would be better for the rest of us…but not the folks who constructed this infernal Family Court system in the first place.
They have an entirely different agenda, and “better for the rest of us” got nothing to do with it.
We can quibble about the speculative notions regarding the motives. We can also debate endlessly about WHO is responsible for creating the status quo. This, after all, goes to the heart of the differences between “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy fact.” None of that really matters when you get down to brass tacks.
Regardless of who or why, the fact remains: it is official U.S. Federal Government policy to fund a State Government level, child support collection and enforcement bureaucracy, in all 50 States.
Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, to be more precise.
For those who are not familiar with it, here’s one non-custodial parent who was forced to pay an outrageous monthly sum of family court ordered child support, who researched the act and translates the voluminous legalese into laymen’s terms:
State incentive to collect child support : Bigger piece of Federal funds pie
Yup. CSSD collects child support from the parent who “is not worthy” (words taken from pleading of Timothy Lynn, granted sole legal and physical custody of our child and $5,300 per month to be collected by CSSD for him). California then receives a bigger share of the $483,000,000+ tax-dollar pie disbursed to reward states for collecting from deadbeats…like me… who can not possibly pay the ludicrous child support ordered, and who are denied any access to their own children with no trial by jury or legal representation.
Surprise, surprise, the “deadbeat” non-custodial parent in this case is the mother. From a statistical outlook, she’s an anomaly; an outlier. The exception that proves the rule. But her outrage and sense of injustice are well placed.
The family court system is a machine, one designed specifically to chew up the nuclear family and spit out divorced spouses and children, damaged, dependent and more susceptible to State control. And it was built that way on purpose.
Why else would the Federal Government offer matching fund incentives for State bureaucracies to maximize their child support collections from non-custodial parents?
i.e. – the more they collect, the more the Federal Government gives.
Let’s take a closer look at the matching funds incentive structure for which the Federal Government pays out to the State Government Family Court and Social Services bureaucracies:
The paternity establishment performance level.
The more children born out-of-wedlock for whom a man is identified as “Father” who is then financial liable for support, the more funds the State bureaucracy will receive. In other words, from the perspective of the State bureaucracy, the more children who are born out-of-wedlock and the more men are designated as “IT,” the more matching funds they get.
The support order performance level.
The more Family Court Judges issue support order’s to non-custodial parents, the more funding the State gets from the Federal Government.
The current payment performance level.
The more payments the State’s Child Support Enforcement agency collects from non-custodial parents, the more matching funds they receive.
The arrearage payment performance level.
The more past-due child support payments they can collect from “Deadbeat” non-custodial parents, the more matching funds they receive. Note that there is no negative variable to this infernal equation – i.e. any arrearages they fail to collect – because the non-custodial simply can’t possibly meet the ordered monthly amount – has no bearing on the matching funds. This is why they have no qualms throwing you in jail and letting you rot for being a “deadbeat.” They just have to go out and find more families to destroy and more out-of-wedlock mothers to receive benefits so they can establish paternity and garnish more wages.
The cost–effectiveness performance level
The cost-effectiveness performance level for a State for a fiscal year is equal to the total amount collected during the fiscal year under the State plan approved under this part divided by the total amount expended…
That would be an incentive to collect as much child support as possible while spending as little as possible on overhead costs for running the entire Child Support Enforcement bureaucracy. This is one giant incentive to find, designate and order child support payments from as many non-custodial parents as possible.
Taken as a whole, what we have here is a Federal Government that PAYS State Governments to create as many non-custodial parents liable for child support obligations as possible.
There are no financial incentives from the Federal Government that reward State social work bureaucracies to resolve marital differences or reconcile separated couples.
There are no financial incentives from the Federal Government that reward State social work bureaucracies that restore children to two parent homes.
There are no financial incentives from the Federal Government that reward State social work bureaucracies that act with reason, temperance of compassion in reviewing the personal and financial situation of non-custodial parents charged with child support obligations . It’s pay the imputed income judgement or go to jail.
There are no financial incentives from the Federal Government that reward State social work bureaucracies for discouraging divorces, nor resolving child custody disputes.
But most of all, and in answer to our venerable site host and founder’s rhetorical question, There are no financial incentives from the Federal Government that reward State social work bureaucracies to support equal custody arrangements for which no money can be taken from a non-custodial parent and paid out to a custodial parent, so that matching funds can be paid out by the Federal Government to fund the Family Court bureaucracy.
In other words, the real answer to the question “What’s wrong with Men having equal custody to avoid child support?” is that hundreds of thousands of jobs, careers and livelihoods of the people who make up the work force of the Family Court bureaucracies and Family Law professions in all 50 States, depends on a steady supply of divorces and out-of-wedlock births so that matching funds from the Federal Government can fund the Child Support Enforcement regime.
It is a beast designed to feast and grow on the most personal level of the citizenry and the foundation of civilized society – the family.
And they’re making us all pay for it, since all those Federal matching funds come from the Federal Government budget which is either collected as taxes from we the sheeple, or borrowed from the Federal Reserve System, so that we are indebted in perpetuity to fund this ghastly leviathan designed specifically and deliberately to devour the traditional Patriarchal-modeled family.
