Post by carissa928 on Mar 2, 2009 19:36:54 GMT -5
Carissa Clayton
2-28-09
Working your entire life while raising children and taking care of a house is not easy. If you divorced your spouse and had to pay him alimony and part of your retirement pension, would you think that is fair? The divorce laws in New Jersey are completely appalling and outdated. They were set against womens lib, and have been increasing to harsher terms due to the fact that women are becoming more business oriented. These terms aren’t all supposed to be against women, but in some cases that is the issue. Divorce laws are strictly unfair and should be re-evaluated for certain cases.
Divorce courts feel that when two people divorce, they should both be able to maintain the same standard of living for which they are accustomed. Common sense tells me that this is impossible. For example, if the combined salary of the couple was $200,000.00, they will both be living with $100,000.00, how can they both keep the same standard of living? In this country most people do not have disposable income that they can just set aside. Most people live paycheck to paycheck. This being said if your money is now cut in half, your expenses will need to be too. This means a smaller home, less clothes, etc. Due to this determination the person with the higher income now has to pay the other alimony. This can be temporary, rehabilitative or permanent.
As if this isn’t bad enough, when the spouse with the larger income retires, he/she will have to give the other spouse enough of his/her pension so that they will still be getting equal money. They will live like this for the rest of their lives. Another fact is that if the lower income spouse doesn’t have a special clause put in the divorce decree and that person dies, that the other will pay the dead ones estate the money. This means if the one person dies but remarries before, their new spouse will then get the money for the rest of their life. Is this justice? I don’t think so. You make choices in life about the type of career you want, the education you obtain, and what you make of your life. Should you be penalized for the rest of your life because you have had someone living off of you for years?
Now there are certain circumstances where I feel alimony is justified. In the case of a spouse who worked while the other went to medical school or some other long term educational endeavor and the one spouse paid the others tuition and the household expenses. The spouse becomes a doctor making a very large salary and decides they want a divorce. The other spouse then deserves alimony at least to be paid back for all of the time and money spent supporting the other. The other case is when a woman stays home to raise her children. She has given up her job, while the husband is the sole supporter. He then wants a divorce and she not only doesn’t have an income, but no recent job skills to get her a decent paying job. In this case I feel the spouse should get alimony until she can continue her education or whatever else she needs to do to get a job comparable to what she had previously. These are typical of the reasons that alimony was created. With feminism and women’s lib, the courts are now saying that the woman should be held liable if she is the main breadwinner. This is a slap in the face to women who did their best to get ahead in the job market.
I feel the entire divorce system needs to be changed. They need to look on a case by case basis the circumstances surrounding the life that the married couples have lived. They need to look at who tried to better themselves career wise, who did what for the children and the house. It is just not fair to say the money both people make should be split down the middle. There are too many things that need to be considered when making these lifelong decisions.
2-28-09
Working your entire life while raising children and taking care of a house is not easy. If you divorced your spouse and had to pay him alimony and part of your retirement pension, would you think that is fair? The divorce laws in New Jersey are completely appalling and outdated. They were set against womens lib, and have been increasing to harsher terms due to the fact that women are becoming more business oriented. These terms aren’t all supposed to be against women, but in some cases that is the issue. Divorce laws are strictly unfair and should be re-evaluated for certain cases.
Divorce courts feel that when two people divorce, they should both be able to maintain the same standard of living for which they are accustomed. Common sense tells me that this is impossible. For example, if the combined salary of the couple was $200,000.00, they will both be living with $100,000.00, how can they both keep the same standard of living? In this country most people do not have disposable income that they can just set aside. Most people live paycheck to paycheck. This being said if your money is now cut in half, your expenses will need to be too. This means a smaller home, less clothes, etc. Due to this determination the person with the higher income now has to pay the other alimony. This can be temporary, rehabilitative or permanent.
As if this isn’t bad enough, when the spouse with the larger income retires, he/she will have to give the other spouse enough of his/her pension so that they will still be getting equal money. They will live like this for the rest of their lives. Another fact is that if the lower income spouse doesn’t have a special clause put in the divorce decree and that person dies, that the other will pay the dead ones estate the money. This means if the one person dies but remarries before, their new spouse will then get the money for the rest of their life. Is this justice? I don’t think so. You make choices in life about the type of career you want, the education you obtain, and what you make of your life. Should you be penalized for the rest of your life because you have had someone living off of you for years?
Now there are certain circumstances where I feel alimony is justified. In the case of a spouse who worked while the other went to medical school or some other long term educational endeavor and the one spouse paid the others tuition and the household expenses. The spouse becomes a doctor making a very large salary and decides they want a divorce. The other spouse then deserves alimony at least to be paid back for all of the time and money spent supporting the other. The other case is when a woman stays home to raise her children. She has given up her job, while the husband is the sole supporter. He then wants a divorce and she not only doesn’t have an income, but no recent job skills to get her a decent paying job. In this case I feel the spouse should get alimony until she can continue her education or whatever else she needs to do to get a job comparable to what she had previously. These are typical of the reasons that alimony was created. With feminism and women’s lib, the courts are now saying that the woman should be held liable if she is the main breadwinner. This is a slap in the face to women who did their best to get ahead in the job market.
I feel the entire divorce system needs to be changed. They need to look on a case by case basis the circumstances surrounding the life that the married couples have lived. They need to look at who tried to better themselves career wise, who did what for the children and the house. It is just not fair to say the money both people make should be split down the middle. There are too many things that need to be considered when making these lifelong decisions.