Alimony was premised on the economic dependency of a wife on her husband. The rationale was that a sundered marital contract raised the possibility that the wife would become “a public charge,” along with her children. This was once a defensible position, but in today’s America it’s seldom applicable any longer.
Child support is defensible on both legal and moral grounds, but alimony in a case where both parties have income-producing occupations is not. This has special force in wife-initiated divorces, which, according to Stephen Baskerville, are now the great majority of divorces occurring in these United States.
Charges of physical abuse should be handled as a matter of criminal law, not as elements of a divorce proceeding. Charges of emotional abuse should be laughed out of court in this day of easily availabe divorce for “irreconcilable differences.”
Those who have brought rotten fruit may hurl it at their pleasure.
