Quit bashing deadbeat dads--moms are the real problem

[laughing dog]

One would think that twice the proportion of custodial mothers have support orders compared to custodial fathers would outweigh the small difference in deadbeat rates. Add in that twice as many custodial mothers live in poverty than custodial fathers, and one would think it is obvious that if there is a gender-based problem with deadbeats, it is not clearly women.

There are more men than women paying child support. However, it's the individuals that matter--and women are more likely to be deadbeat than men.

If individuals matter, since more men are deadbeats than women, then men are the problem. If individuals are the problem, more women are likely to be owed child support than men, so men are the problem. If individuals are the problem, since custodial women are twice as likely as custodial men to live in poverty, women are not the problem. The validity of your conclusion that is clearly women are the problem as deadbeats is clearly based on questionable reasoning.

 

[ronburgundy]

The OP is not a factual statement, but one of moral judgment and advocacy for the punishment of "bashing".

Such moral judgments are not just about actions, but about reasons and motives for actions, intentions, and the options available to the actor, plus the actual harm to others.

The term "deadbeat" is itself perjorative and refers to more than simply "not paying court ordered amounts", but is typically used to describe parents who can or could with minimal effort pay their child-support.

This is from wiki on "Deadbeat parents" "The gender-specific deadbeat dad and deadbeat mom are commonly used to refer to men and women who have fathered or mothered a child and intentionally fail to pay child support ordered by a family law court or statutory agency such as the Child Support Agency."

Notice the qualification of "intentionally" suggesting they could pay but intentionally refuse to.

What the article shows is that more non-paying moms are non-paying because they cannot afford to. And their is often no harm to the child as a result, because of the higher than national average income for custodial fathers.
Another factor the article does not mention is that fathers rarely get custody unless the mother doesn't want it or the mother has serious financial or psychological issues. Whereas, perfectly capable and willing fathers are often denied custody or agree to give primary to the mother due to sexist social norms.
Thus, non-custodial moms are far more likely to be poor or mentally unstable, thus less capable of paying.

In sum, non-paying moms are less likely to have the financial means to pay, the psychological means to improve that situation, their non-payment causes much less harm to the child, whereas more dads can pay, their lack of pay causes more harm, but they intentionally choose not to.

By any defensible moral system, that makes the non-paying men more deserving of moral castigation, punishment, and "bashing", and of the label "deadbeat".

That said, a large part of the reason for this difference is the cultural and legal sexism in favoring moms for custody, leading to selection bias in the types of men versus women that become non-custodial parents expected to pay.

Once again, there is plenty of room for liberals and conservatives to both be wrong.

 

[Bullmoose Too]

Deadbeat parents in general are a problem. Weather a deadbeat parent is a man or woman is irrelivant.