Child Support Enforcement

Yes America, this is an actual picture of an actual cover from an
actual manual used in an actual Child Support Recovery Unit's training class.

I'm sorry America.  I'm afraid I can't empathize with a mother, where she was madly in love with the father, and allowed herself to have his baby, but where he chose to deny his blood, and therefore also chose to be a deadbeat, where stepping up and taking responsibility for the cost of raising his child is concerned, and is now, and has been for many years, impossible to locate.

I'm also not a perfect dad myself.  I signed the rights of my firstborn away to his mother, who didn't want any more to do with me, and, because of that, didn't want me to be a part of the kid's life, so quickly put herself in a situation where she could insist that I do it.  I was then literally BULLIED into marrying wife #1, who, when I asked for an annulment, raped me when I wasn't awake (yes, I slept that hard), got pregnant, then disappeared on me, showing up some 10 months later for divorce proceedings with a child I then had to pay for.  I avoided paying for that child at every opportunity, mostly to torture the mother back for what she had done.  Child #3's mother took off with our son on the day he was born, because she was angry that my job had not informed me that she was in the hospital having my son, and I was late getting to the hospital.  I had no idea where she or the baby were until he was almost 2, and when I found him, the family she had hastily dumped him into refused to let me be a part of his life.  Child #4 came some 20 years later with wife #2. Since I was pretty much over having kids, and since she didn't want any, I gave her the option of keeping it or putting it up for adoption (I don't believe in abortion, so this was not an option).  She chose adoption.

I did, however, because of Wife #1 and child number two (Wife #1's son), get to fully experience the raw power of the Iowa Child Support Recovery Unit for over 18 years.  I later found out, through my study of the law protecting families here, that each state was mandated, once upon a time, by our government in order to better enforce child support payments owed by "delinquent" parents.  Each state is allowed to creatively enact their own laws and punishments to enforce this, and the number of delinquent parents had better wane, or that state wouldn't be receiving the federal benefits it once enjoyed.

Iowa, I feel, is a prime example in utter stupidity where our laws of handling the delinquent parent are concerned.  Oh, I can't really say none of them work, because I'm sure they do.  But the extent...well, I plan to cover each and every way I've come across and shred its logic into little itty bits.

Before I can do this, however, it may make sense for me to cover the amount taken out of your check for this first.  Now I don't know about most of you, but I've come to find that the standard amount that can be taken out of your pay for your child support is up to 50%.  Isn't it tough enough to live on the meager salaries we have now?  How can one anything or anybody be expected to live on 50% of that wage?  This, of course, is not their problem.  And this isn't just for a year or two, this is for eight....teen....years.  Oh, and that's if he/she doesn't plan to attend college...it could be even longer than that!!  This amount, as I understand it, goes to the parent raising the child with full custody.  So I'm giving up half of my already meager living wage to support my child, who isn't living with me...to my other half who is getting a full wage themselves and half of mine to support the child.

So what you're saying is, because we have chosen not to be together, the person who makes the most money suffers at half of their living wage and the person with the child gets a wage and a half.  No, no, I still don't see it.  Could you put that into a mathematical format for me please?

1 1/2 @ $1000 = 1 @ $500 (where one and a half equals the parent and the child, and the payer's salary equals $1000 a month, in case you didn't understand that).

I'm sorry America, I'm afraid I'm still shaking my head.  And we accepted this when?  And have never tried to change it?  Oh, but of course, we ARE trained to be good sheep.  Roll over, open the wallet, and just pay it already, right?

Ok, now that this is FULLY understood, let's move on to this state's methods of recovery.

Method one:  Jail Time.  First, 30 days.  Then 60.  Then 90.  Then 180.  Then a year, etc.  Ok, first of all, this benefits the state of Iowa (or any other state, for that matter) not one bit.  Prisons are no longer state of federally run, they are, for lack of a more apropo word, a business.  This does, for argument's sake, create more jobs and help the economy of Iowa, I'm sure.  What I WOULD like to know though, is how this helps the non-paid parent.  Now, in addition to a delinquent child support payment, we now have a thoroughly pissed off delinquent parent with not only a back-child support payment, but also a jail bill.  Do you believe he's going to rush to the bank to retrieve the money for her; with a new outlook on the error of his ways?  I doubt it.  The percentage of jailed parents to date?  1.7% of the population.  That doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm betting if you threw in the number of parents they can't find, it'd be more than that.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure this has improved our numbers where delinquency is concerned.  Or maybe it hasn't.  These numbers, like a lot of numbers we deal with in our lives as Americans are doctored for the appropriate authorities, and for the law-pro public that supports it.  When we're talking about the father that's been in jail 5 times for this, I'm sure it's not helping a whole lot.  His ability to get a job, especially in this economy, can't be helped by this, surely.  No job = no payments, past or present.

Here's the thing I really like about this law though.  Let's say the checks are coming in like gang-busters, then all of a sudden they stop.  The paying parent lost his job.  The courts, through the power of the ICSRU, can then IMMEDIATELY put out a warrant for the non-paying parent.  Shouldn't there be a small buffer to allow this parent to find another job, especially with the shortage of jobs we have these days??  No, let's piss them off some more and put them back in jail for non-payment again, that'll help!!

Here's my favorite - The taking away of the Iowa Driver's License.  For real?  I myself don't consider an Iowa Driver's License much of a privilege to begin with, let alone the cost of owning and repairing a car these days, or putting gas in and insuring said car.  I can hear that parent now:  "TAKE my driver's license please!!  It saves me MASSIVELY to take the bus.  And if it's revoked for non-payment of child support, even better!!  Now I save by taking the bus AND I don't have to pay my child support!!  How's THAT punishment workin' out for ya?" Or, let's take the delinquent parent who isn't paying and gets his driver's license revoked.  I once got away with driving a car without a driver's licence for 5 years.  I'm sure this will happen.  The best of this though, is take away the driver's license of the more law abiding parent, and you aren't either helping him find work, nor are you helping him/her get to work either.  This is a dumb way to recover your child support, from either perspective.

I'm most certainly not saying let's go back to the way things were, since it's pretty darned obvious that didn't work at ALL, but surely we can discover some better ways to fix the dead-beat parent.