Child support is a percentage of your pay, so it has nothing to do with poverty. So that just leaves people who are bad with money management. Yes, threaten to take away their driving privilege instead of jail time. Put them in a position that forces them to meet their legal obligations. Child support is not some tax or fee or fine. It pays for food and shelter for children. The poorer spouse is usually the one that gets it. So if you don't enforce it, then you are directly punishing the poorer spouse (with the children) because the other one is "too bad with money management".
That ratio doesn't mean shit when you are homeless and starving to death due to poverty caused by having your means of transportation taken away from you, or by the combined effects of having that taken away from you along with the added fines and penalties of breaking the law by driving when it's illegal for you in order to try to break out of the loop.
All it means is your kid gets less and thinks less of you for it. Poorly thought out plan that punishes the poor and the children dependent on them.
> Child support is a percentage of your pay, so it has nothing to do with poverty. So that just leaves people who are bad with money management.
Ohio's minimum wage is $10.45/hr, $21,600/year. With one minor child, the state will require ~$2,000/year in child support (processed for an additional 2% charge).
ADP's net pay calculator says that that will mean you take home $365 a week. $1,400 a month after your child support comes out.
Saying "it has nothing to do with poverty" isn't exactly accurate, either.
> Child support is not some tax or fee or fine. It pays for food and shelter for children.
Wait til you hear about states where the man can be on the hook for child support for a child that isn't his because he "acted as a parent" (because he didn't know this). Sure would seem like a tax or fee or fine to me if that was the case.
