• FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Established in the 1970s, the rule was intended to make sure men were financially accountable for the children they fathered.

      Some how I don’t think they thought that through. Idiots.

      • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Well either they were stupid, or they knew exactly what they were doing.

        I used to think that you should never attribute to malice what’s easily explained by stupidity. And as I’ve grown up, I find a lot of malicious assholes hide behind stupidity.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Left to myself, I’m just gonna assume both. Malice and stupidity go hand in hand way too often

          • NJSpradlin@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Malice was the guys who knew what they were doing and playing the long game, stupidity were the guys who heard their lie and believed it.

      • mwguy@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        There was no genetic testing for paternity back then. If you weren’t married you could contest paternity.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          ‘Cuz nobody back then ever cheated…

          Further the reality of parentage doesn’t change with a divorce. This is arbitrary bullshit.

          • mwguy@infosec.pub
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            8 months ago

            People cheated for sure, but if you were married you were simply on the hook for the offspring even if it wasn’t yours.

            I’m not saying the law is good, I’m saying it made sense for the time it was passed in. Now that we have genetic testing to confirm paternity or should be repealed.

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Or they could have just created the law that said “the child was conceived under wedlock, the husband is on the hook.”

              But details. There’s no reason to use birth, as the critical time. Because if they knew she was pregnant to hold the divorce…. Then they could just make the guy cough up support. (Including while pregnant.)

              • mwguy@infosec.pub
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                8 months ago

                Or they could have just created the law that said “the child was conceived under wedlock, the husband is on the hook.”

                To make someone the father they have to inform them of it. There’s nothing stopping the father from flying the coop once divorced. While the proceedings are in progress, the judge has the right to keep the father to be present. And this was more of a concern when you could disappear and start a new life by moving across town.

    • swan_pr@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      I live in Canada. I never cease to be flabbergasted by laws in the US. It’s like living next to a time warp.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        A LOT of this country never left the 19th century, and they don’t care to. They feel safe in the old ways, they’re scared of change.