(no subject)

[bluebeard]

In Tennessee, maybe in other states, they'll take your driver's license away if you get behind in child support payments.

So... say you pay child support. Sometimes happens and you lose your job. You get behind. They take your license away, making it more difficult to get a job. You get further behind... ad nauseum.

Is that not fucking stupid or what? I realize that it's intended to punish people who simply didn't pay as opposed to couldn't, but it doesn't seem very well thought out.

Comments

[fadeout1930.livejournal.com]

I think that is most cases child support is wrong (if you're "immoral" enough to be fucking out of wedlock you should be "immoral" enough to have an abortion) but, really, how many negligent fathers really fall behind by accident?

[fallenfromgrace.livejournal.com]

I realize shit happens, but there should be very few cases where this ends up truly creating undue hardship. Their license only gets revoked if they're 90 days past due and make no arrangements for their situation. You can make arrangements and they don't have to involve paying in full immediately.

There are always jobs around here... just maybe not the jobs people want or that allow them to immediately continue their current lifestyle without struggling so someone going months without a job is almost always by choice. It's not the great depression where there literally weren't jobs... there are plenty for people to have multiple jobs if they're determined enough and need to. You do what you have to do.

Besides, who really stops driving just because their license is revoked/suspended??? Just don't get pulled over.

All that said, I think it's pretty stupid that they think revoking a license should be in any way related to child support. It's even more retarded that there are so many people that have created such demand for government to babysit the population that they (read: government) would feel the need to come up with ways to ground us when we're bad little children.

[fritterfae.livejournal.com]

Doesn't license revocation usually come with an "except for work" stipulation?

[dom-ino.livejournal.com]

there's Suspended, Restricted and Revoked. Suspended means you can pay to get it back, Restricted means you can drive to work or school or groceries or whatever you've got worked out witht he state, Revoked means byebye. The guy that came in the office earlier got suspended.

[dom-ino.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's true; communicate your situation and they don't fuck with you so much.

[dom-ino.livejournal.com]

I don't deny your point; it still seems like an unrelated punishment.

[signe.livejournal.com]

You usually have to be a significant amount of time behind before they start adding penalties like that. I wish more states would do it. It's incentive.

For instance, our friend's baby-daddy would never get his license. He's paid about $25 in child support in 8 years.