Posted on 07/17/2010 3:33:31 PM PDT by RogerFGay
Jeff Dolan spent Father’s Day in jail, locked away for failure to pay child support. Deadbeat dads don’t garner a lot of sympathy. But you don’t need to study Jeff’s case for long before you realize that he’s anything but a deadbeat. Instead, he’s a man hopelessly ensnared in a crushing bureaucratic machine: He’s in jail because he couldn’t pay child support, but he couldn’t pay child support because he was unemployed … and he was unemployed because the court took his driver’s license for failure to pay child support … after he went bankrupt paying his court costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at fullcomment.nationalpost.com ...
There are very good, logical reasons to elminate debtor prison sentences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors’_prison
First and foremost, how does one make enough money to pay debts while in prison?
Now consider that most debtor’s prisons charged the debtors for their room and board. It is a hole from which you cannot escape, unless you already have the ability to pay the debt and the trumped up debts that accompany your prison term.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no friend to deadbeats of any kind. But debtor prisons are blunt instruments that can be used by bureaucrats to hurt any single one of us.
So — debtor’s prisons are a thing of the past?
You and me both. At age 18 I knew that I wanted nothing to do with fatherhood, and this is among the several reasons I had for that decision. By then, I already knew of relatives who had been taken to the cleaners on child support.
Yep,, I'm almost 60 now,, still very glad I did not have kids,,,can't miss what you never had.
With today's move to socialism and vampy women,,even more happy to not have kids!!!!!!!Ps,,,, I think I will get drunk tonight and smoke my pipe..... who's to complain...PSSS...You would not believe the old women chasing me :-)
I can’t think why.
believe it or not.. I smoke the stuff sold at Walgreens.... I mix my own blend....
Are you fore or against me getting drunk tonight???........just curious......
I had an uncle who had a pipe in his mouth every waking hour of the day.
He could switch the pipe from one side to the other side of his mouth using only his lips in a fluid rolling motion, it was amazing to see....smoked Mixture #79
what would a women want with me???
$$$$$$$$$ from all the $$ you didn’t spend on your kids, methinks
Much like everything else the government lays hands on - kneejerk reactions and over-arching rules/laws cause more harm than good.
I have heard many stories like the one here - Divorce, custody battle, mother gets kids and fat child support judgment. Father looses job, can’t make support payments, lose driver’s license, etc. The story is growing more common.
But again - I also know mothers who can’t get child support or even a fair child support ruling - and the fathers DO have jobs, but don’t pay their fair share.
Typical government heavy-handed inefficiency.
My step-father had children with his first wife. She was actually abusive, but the courts in Michigan have never been known as particularly “just”. His ex ended up with custody and a HUGE child support judgment (this was back in the mid 70’s). He moved to Florida, but continued to make appropriate payments. This was before some states became the clearing house for such payments. She claimed he didn’t make a bunch of payments. She then started calling him at work to harass him for money, eventually talking to his employer and lying - eventually causing my step-father to lose his job. Kind of hard to continue making those child support payments when the person you are paying them too causes you to lose your job... Then he resumed payments when he found new employment. But again, his ex began calling and causing trouble. He now really was somewhat behind in his child support. By now, the kids were nearly grown. When they all had turned 18, he stopped making payments.
Then my step-father married my mother (after moving to another state). He finally hadn’t heard anything... and suddenly began receiving legal documents from his previous two states of residence (FL and MI). Basically, there were threats along these lines in this article. His ex had filed some sort of complaint for back child support - both from the times she had caused him to lose his job, and those times she claimed he hadn’t made payments before that. Despite having canceled checks for the earlier time, it was ruled that he owed over $20K. After all was said and done, his wages were garnished until every penny, with accumulated and ongoing interest included.
$22,000 bucks won't last somebody like that very long.
My bet is that it didn't even make a dent in her credit card debt.
That’s what me and my friend were saying. The kind of person who would steal that much money from a good man, is probably capable of blowing it all in a very short time.
The Franklin Cover-Up is a very disturbing. And you are right and it still goes on.
I'm not really feeling sorry for this guy. Someone let me know when he's living in a shelter with the kids.
Yes, all men everywhere should be made to suffer eternally for the bad behavior of a few. And as we know, all women everywhere are perfect little angels. All men are evil. All women are victims. All heterosexual behavior is rape ... lada lada lada ... blah, blah, blah.
I've heard alcoholics can find their way to a bar without driving a car and have no sympathy for any parent (male or female) that can't manage to support their children.
Take the bus, walk, ride a bike, get yo mama to haul your but to work...whatever.
I agree with you 100%.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.