Chose your state, enter your $$$ info and see how much you would owe in child support!
I chose my current sad state of Indiana and just for fun, entered "$1,000" in the non-custodial monthly income & "$10,000" for custodial parent monthly income. In this case, the parent with the child is making ten times more than the parent who will be paying child support. Ceteris paribus, the minimum wage parent still coughs up $114 a month to the parent making six figures.
After overhearing a guy on the bus this morning mumbling on about child support, I got to thinking about it myself. Is it "fair"? I don't know. I don't even know how much it really costs to raise a kid, but according to last year's USDA report, it's approximately $221,000...before college. Of course, like cuts of beef, some of us are more expensive than others.
Anyway, this guy on the bus was more or less arguing in support of "making men pay their share", as he sexist-ly put it. What DOESN'T bother me is the idea of a parent who has divorced their spouse being legally responsible (within reason) for paying child support, given that the children were born in wedlock. In a sense, I feel like the two parties obviously made enough of a plan at some point to combine their assets anyway. But what about those teen mom situations? Should Billy quit school and start stocking shelves at Kroger because Britney wants to keep the baby?
In any state where abortion is legal, a pregnant woman essentially has a choice. She can keep the baby or abort it. While the guy might have an opinion on her decision, it is ultimately hers. Why not have abortion for men, too? If a man wants to "keep" the baby, he can. If he wants to give up responsibility, he can opt for that too. If a woman has the legal right and option to choose, so should a man.
If you think politics and issues like this are dry, get off of my blog and out of my life. I'm interested to know what all of you think about this kind of stuff.
The guy on the bus also spoke in support of socialized health care while clutching a box of Dunkin' Donuts. Great...
