The Backlash! - November 1994

Organization News - American Institute for Men (714) 951-5206 - 21986 Cayuga Lane, Lake Forest, CA 92630

Can we solve the divorce problem? - Part 1

by John Knight
Copyright 1994 by John Knight


There is no question that the world's highest divorce and illegitimacy rate in the U.S. has led to greatly increased crime, loss of economic and manufacturing competitiveness, a 75 point drop in SAT scores, etc.

And there is no question that this high divorce rate is the direct result of government policy (or the lack of sound policy to preserve families, or both).

Current "family policy" provides huge economic incentives to divorce lawyers and courts to assist in the destruction of families, and none to preserve those families, and higher incomes to women of divorce than they would otherwise earn in the workforce.

And there is no question that this policy has not helped our children, that it has destroyed many men's savings and their future ability to earn, and that it has ultimately lowered the real status of women -- financially, socially, and psychologically. With crime being such a predominant issue in the news, and thus in the forefront of most of our consciousness, it is clear that a major reduction in crime rates will occur only with a sharp reduction in these obscenely high divorce and illegitimacy rates.

Greater than 50 percent of the men surveyed agreed that the most important first step to resolving today's social and economic ills is to end the high divorce rate, and that this is more important than crime or immigration. Surprisingly, more than 70 percent of the women surveyed also share that view. If so many people put this issue at the top of their agenda, then why is there no political or media or TV focus on it, and why is every proposed solution squashed like a Quayle?

Because if 1.2 million divorces each year cost an average in legal fees of $80,000 over the life of the divorce action and the resulting child custody battles, then the revenue flowing to the legal establishment is $96 billion per year, which is 3 times the entire U.S. computer industry, and the momentum of this size expenditure, and the media coverage it demands, is not going to be stopped by a well-intentioned lawyer or politician or feminist. This money comes straight out of our present and future savings accounts, and it does not benefit our children, nor does it ultimately benefit ex-wives, nor U.S. industry (which now has $96 billion less available to it each year which might have been invested in R&D or capital expansion), nor does it benefit dispossessed fathers. This money is not "put to work" as some non- economic minded citizens rationalize that it is. It is spent, usually on foreign products, which further reduces the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.

For each $80,000 that leaves a citizen's savings account to pay for a lawyer's Mercedes, the U.S. as a nation loses 4 ways:

There were more divorces last year than there were marriages 25 years ago, which means that the U.S. government is now the guarantor of 3 things:
  1. Death
  2. Taxes
  3. Divorce
Is this a failure of government? Yes. It is a failure of the worst kind, creating far more problems than we can even begin to discuss in a lengthy tome, let alone a short article.

Is our government doing anything about it? Actually, it is on a course to make the situation far worse. Is it a bigger problem than crime, which gets all the press? Not only is this high divorce rate a key factor in the doubling of the murder rate and the drug abuse rate and a quadrupling of our incarceration rate, but the FBI estimates that the "Economic Loss to Crime Victims" is less than $20 billion, which is 1/18th of the estimated $360 billion lost to divorce (before considering that insurance reimbursements cover about $15 billion of this $20 billion loss, leaving a net loss of only $5 billion).

Should government be taking positive action to fix this problem? That is precisely its function -- nothing else is more important to our nation, to our children, to men, to women, and to reducing crime, than to take every possible step to preserving families, which are the building block of our nation and our economy.

So why are we not even proposing adequate solutions?

Next month, solutions


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