It is a revenue generator, under the guise of welfare reform. And the federal government pays 2 dollars for every 3 they collect. So if the man pays 200 through the state governement, 133 dollars is paid from the federal coffers to the state. When you add in the costs of collecting support, and the bad collection rates (often these rates are held up by the guy who would pay directly to the mother on time every month but pays through the state for accounting) I doubt it saves any money at all.
The data I was able to collect is more than two years old now, but 70% of the child support judgements in California are default. They're not making any effort to find the real fathers because they don't care where the money is coming from as long as they get paid.
At $5000 a pop to protect my family and my reputation, this is getting old really, really fast.