WTF? Alan Grayson's estranged wife is getting food stamps

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

400. At a guess, we have divorce laws

for the same reason we have many other laws. To benefit society.

It's better for society as a whole if the tab for people who want to continue not to work is picked up by former spouses if they have the means, than for the state to be paying out to keep them afloat.

There might also be people who believe that it's a matter of 'fairness' that one partner should continue to support the other, even though it makes a mockery of the very concept of 'partner', and casts them instead as a 'victim' who deserves redress for having had to 'put up with the demands of' marriage. (Note that I'm not saying there aren't REAL victims out there, women abused by partners who escape such traps. They certainly do exist, but they are not the majority of marriages.) But not every divorce is a result of one spouse victimizing the other. Often, people just thought they 'fit' with a partner better than they did, and the stress of real life together is simply too much.