Welfare reform in the United States has shifted the role of welfare agencies from distributing money to collecting it—not from taxpayers but from divorced fathers. Despite the stereotype of the “deadbeat dad” as a wealthy playboy squiring around his new trophy wife in a bright red Porsche, federal officials have acknowledged that most unpaid child support is uncollectible because it is owed by fathers who are as poor as or poorer than the mothers and children.

Stephen Baskerville is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Associate Professor of Government at Patrick Henry College.
Civil Liberties and Human RightsCulture and SocietyEconomyEntitlements and WelfareFamilyLaw and Liberty
Other Independent Review articles by Stephen Baskerville
Winter 2011/12 Sex and the Problem of Human Rights
Spring 2004 Is There Really a Fatherhood Crisis?