Well, yes and no. Yes, if your child is in need you have a duty to support them. But no, children should not need to rely on child support from an unwilling parent. Becoming a parent is a really big decision, and a lot of people are parents against their will, whether that be because of poor sex education, poor access to contraceptives, laws against abortion, or simply a partner who doesn’t agree. The government should be providing enough money for a kid to live on and have a good life. That’s how we do it in my country and it’s better than America.
A lot of people have sex in a state where they shouldn’t be held responsible for that decision for a lifetime. Whether it be violent rape, coercive rape, getting drunk, or just being a dumb kid who doesn’t know any better. Nobody should be having one night of poor decision making at 17 and paying for that choice at 35. And it’s really really important that people who are raped not be paying for it. I read that story from America where a high schooler was raped by his teacher and had to pay child support. Now, we can either subject rape victims to the beaurocracy of proving to the government that they didn’t consent, which is a degrading and triggering process, or the government can take responsibility for looking after ALL its citizens and pay for the raising of all unwanted children. Hell, pay for the raising of the wanted ones too, alleviate the burdens of all parents! There’s enough money.
In an enlightened society, the idea of an individual paying “child support” would be seen as absurd and backward, because all children would be supported by the whole community just for being born. And also abortion would be legal and sex ed would be very comprehensive.
Liz@midwest.social 6 months ago
Do we really want that kind of person procreating?