Derek Bodner’s Blog

I just stumbled upon this. Apparently, a judge has Michael Strahan a deadbeat for only paying half of the $6.5 Million divorce settlement. Last year, his ex-wife was awarded a $15 million dollar settlement, which included $6.5 million up front and $18,000/month as child support. Wow.

This “assets should be split 50/50 on a divorce” is crap. Saying “you got accustomed to a standard of living” is crap. If you were poor at one point, you became accustomed to being poor. You then were able to develop a new lifestyle when you got money. Now that you don’t have the money, you’re more than able to re-adapt and live a new lifestyle. If these couples had built a business together, I could see a 50/50 split. However, the money clearly came in from his paystubs.

Why does she get to live the rest of her life without working? Because she married a millionaire? Check out these tidbits, from an AP article on the court proceedings:

The former cosmetics store manager testified that between March 2005 and May 2006 she spent more than $500,000 on “lifestyle expenses,” including $22,500 on photographs and $27,000 on clothes for the couple’s 20-month-old twins.

Under cross-examination by Michael Strahan’s attorney Robert Penza, Jean Strahan admitted that none of the $550,000 was invested, saved or put aside for taxes. Rather, it was spent on things like a 10-day Jamaican getaway for her nanny’s entire family and handbags for the couple’s toddlers.

“They like to be accessorized,” Jean Strahan said. “Isabella doesn’t like to leave the house without her purse.”

Still, Jean Strahan characterized the past year’s expenditures as “conservative” and said she actually scaled back her spending after her checks started to bounce.

She went on to try to justify why she would need even more money in the future. According to a list of projected expenses prepared before the trial, Jean Strahan said she would need $4,000 a month for her clothes and $10,000 a month for vacations. She also said she would need two cars, listing a Range Rover and Audi A6 as possible choices.

“But I just saw a Q7, which I liked better,” she quipped when pressed on her choice of two luxury cars.

If that’s not bad enough….

Jean Strahan reaffirmed her earlier testimony that she intended to live off her divorce settlement and not return to work

Now, Child support I understand. I don’t think it should be done how it is, as currently it seems to take the difference between what the two make, and try to even it out. It should literally be about helping the other spouse support the child. $4,000/months in clothes and $10,000/month in vacations is not supporting the kids. It’s supporting your lavish lifestyle.

Then, to top it off, custody of the kids rarely goes to the one who can better support them. It goes to the mother (a majority of the time), and the courts simply make her able to support the kids better. As long as the mother’s not a crackhead or murderer, it defaults to them.

Child Support is clearly a very important topic. And custody can make or break the life of a kid. That’s why the particularly crappy way this country handles it is even more of a joke. These 20 month old’s have become accustomed to having a purse? Please. How are these kids going to know any responsibility, when they’re growing up with their mother who’s been living her adult life on someone else’s dime because she spread her legs? What does that do to REALLY help the children?

Clearly, the main problem is the low life pieces of trash who look at marriage/children as a payday. However, right now divorce/alimony/child support does nothing to prevent this kind of criminal activity. In fact, it encourages it. Divorce court is a big time industry, run by lawyers who make big time money, and overseen by judges who themselves were lawyers. It seems everybody wins in this industry, everyone except the spouse that has to pay, and the kids.