—I hope you never find yourself in such circumstances.—
I used to look at divorced people as second class citizens. Then it happened to me, without cause. She just didn’t like me any more. Fortunately my kids were old enough that I paid child support for only a few years - and maintenance since we had been married a couple of decades.
And I found out that somewere around 75% to 80% of divorces are brought on by the wife. And yes, the men basically get screwed in a way that only family court can do it.
It is extremely foolish for a young man in the US to marry a woman in the current legal environment. I’m sure she’s a real sweet girl, but people change. And these days it can ruin your life - for the REST of your life. This is especially true if you have single digit aged kids. I’ve seen WAY too much of it.
And we’re not talking wife beaters here. We’re talking ordinary flawed men married to flawed women, but the power these flawed women are given by the courts is absolutely criminal. It is also creating a permanent underclass of what should be a strong middle class and part of what is actually destroying our country.
I agree, this is basically what happened to my son. He had savings, his wife got it all and that was after he paid off her credit cards once and paid off her vehicle. He had to pay “Maintenance” IOW, the new fancy name for alimony.
He literally got nothing and they went after his drag racing car because they thought that was worth a lot but it was just an old car with a borrowed engine and borrowed tires he gave them back to the owners. She got it but it wasn’t worth anything and he made her have it towed off because it was hers.
When the economy tanked in 2008 he went from 60 hours a week to 40 or under and between paying off the lawyer bills and child support just barely made it.
The ex provides a roof over the heads of the children and literally not much else. They have food as long as the food stamps hold out. I buy their school clothes and their winter coats, she won’t even buy them school supplies and she works, by choice around 4 hr a day, 5 days a week. She has a Master’s in education, my son paid for the bachelor’s.
No, it isn’t fair, judges break the fathers and then an economy like this comes along and they wonder what happened.