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Old 02-21-2012, 05:26 PM   #4
Versus
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Saya View Post
The right to abortion and the right to not pay child support is a false equivalence. A woman can decide what happens to her body, whether to be pregnant or not. But once there's a child, its up to both parents to provide under the law. They can decide to give the child up for adoption, raise the kid together or have one raise the kid and one pay child support.
You're right. They aren't the same thing. I didn't mean to compare the two. Child support is representative of a parent's responsibility to their children in their absence. What I'm saying is that, regardless of how a woman feels about giving birth or being pregnant, she has (or should have) the right have an abortion and could have one because she simply doesn't want to be a parent, while men do not have an option to free themselves of that obligation.

Quote:
Child support is actually not paid up that often. The US Census Bureau says that $35 billion dollars are owed in child support (http://www.census.gov/newsroom/relea.../cb11-206.html). The average payment a month is only 300 dollars. If you're poor, how are you going to afford to take legal action against the other parent? Dad stopped paying child support and there wasn't really anything we could do about it.
More often not.

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All in all, $35.1 billion in child support was owed in 2009 and 61 percent of that total was received
Besides that, it doesn't really mean anything when people don't pay their bills.

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The average amount of child support received by custodial parents who were owed support payments in 2009 was $3,630, or about $300 per month.
Key word being received. That amount could be different then what they were owed. Which doesn't include things like health insurance or noncash support (which 60% of non-custodial parents provide).

The data also doesn't determine the average income of parents who owe child support. I think it's just as safe to assume that 30% of non-custodial parents also fall beneath the poverty line because I could easily owe my wife 20% of my pay check in most states, and I'm not exactly wealthy.

Also, it doesn't say anywhere that the 70% of custodial parents who did not make claims for "child support issues" didn't because they couldn't afford it. I think you're drawing conclusions, but to be fair, I can only speak from personal experience that a court order is a binding contract from the state. I don't think it costs anything to enforce that.
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Child support is considered the right of the born child, not the custodial parent. Without it, the custodial parent often needs to rely on the state. If this weren't a capitalist society, that probably wouldn't be an issue, but if the government can get away with not providing services, they will do their best to put the cost on someone else.
Then why does child support vary the more money you have? I think it's reasonable to establish how much raising a kid costs, not base it off what the parents' income is. But all that isn't my point. To me, it doesn't matter how many parents don't pay their bills when I consider that it's not cool to be forced to be responsible for a child that people don't want.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MissCheyenne View Post
Shouldn't a father have the right to see the child he's expected to provide for though? I understand if there's a reason for them not to be able to see them such as if they're abusive or violent or if they have to have supervised access but surely, if there's no reason that should keep them apart, a father should be able to see their child not just be forced to support them when financial support is only part of what a child needs.
It's not that he isn't allowed to see his child, it's that his ex lives somewhere else, and he's in the army and isn't allowed to leave 250 miles of where he works unless given the commander's authorization to take a pass or go on leave, so potentially about 3 weeks a year if he spent every opportunity visiting. The problem is that he doesn't have the money to visit very often, and because he doesn't, he doesn't have strong feelings for the child.
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