I agree this is something I've wondered about as society has changed, and it seems a dichotomy between individual freedoms and broken relationships, vs social stricture and maintained family units.
There should be some better ways, or perhaps the best we can hope for is a middle ground, because the current social state around relationships is in my opinion as much responsible for the decline in first world childbirth rate as education is.
The current system encourages easy relationship dissolution, which is fine as long as children and alimony would recognize that.
However the child support laws are stacked to extract a mans livelihood to support the woman and children, while largely denying the man of the respect as a provider and satisfaction of his emotional and sexual needs in the family. This is a major problem that seems the other side of the coin to the old ways which kept relationships stuck together after love has gone or with abusive partners.
It's still a major problem, and it's in my opinion a root cause for the decline in the rate of families forming and having children.
There should be some better ways, or perhaps the best we can hope for is a middle ground, because the current social state around relationships is in my opinion as much responsible for the decline in first world childbirth rate as education is.
The current system encourages easy relationship dissolution, which is fine as long as children and alimony would recognize that.
However the child support laws are stacked to extract a mans livelihood to support the woman and children, while largely denying the man of the respect as a provider and satisfaction of his emotional and sexual needs in the family. This is a major problem that seems the other side of the coin to the old ways which kept relationships stuck together after love has gone or with abusive partners.
It's still a major problem, and it's in my opinion a root cause for the decline in the rate of families forming and having children.