There has not been an effective way in dealing with child support and to ensure that it is administered correctly.
There's two assumptions made:
1) The child's standard of living should be comparable to the parent who makes the larger income
2) The custodial parent reserves all rights when taking care of the child with the aforementioned child support
So child support is based off of parental income, not need, or a fixed amount of money that should be able to take care of a kid on a monthly basis.
Instead of the courts deciding something like "children between the ages of 1-4 receive $600 a month, 5-12 $800 a month, 13-17 $1000 a month, etc. It is based on the parental income.
Child support does not secure the welfare of a child, especially if there is a discrepancy in income. How much child support can the state get from a father who has no job? $25 a month in New York. Public Assistance subsidizes the rest so that the mother gets approximately $80 a month in cash and $240 in food stamps. Child support has done alot to support children and reduce poverty (sighs)
On the other end of the spectrum, a dad who makes $150k a year is probably paying close to $2,000 a month in child support for just one child. You would be naive to believe that 1) it costs that much to take care of a child monthly and 2) that she's really spending that money on a child. Some women have it so good, that they don't even have to work. They can literally live off of the child support
Both ends of the spectrum are devastating. It's just not an effective system.
My 2 cents
I suggest that women with kids that are school age must work in order to receive child support, the same way they are required to work for public assistance
I suggest that they have a fixed rate for child support regardless of income. That will force cats to get jobs and stop fathers who do good for themselves from being taken advantage of
A good parent doesn't need to be forced to take care of their child. He will go above and beyond child support if it is financially possible.
System just fukked up. Hoes are winning. Gov't is winning.