Of all the bad things Reagan did, pushing no fault divorce as the Governor of California is in the top 10. I honestly don't think this is a feminism thing either. We've allowed family courts to become a mess that runs people through a meat grinder and has lost sight of the goal: the best interests of the child.

From my point of view it seems an insoluble problem, I confess.

There is a solution, there has to be. The problem is so huge where do you start? Which political advocacy gang do you go to war with first? How do you magically make an economy that allows single income two parent households? How do you force divorcing parents to drop their nonsense, go to counseling and fight through the bad times so they have the resources to raise kids? How do you fix the problem in such a way that the parents in the above scenario don't hate the kids for trapping them in a marriage?

(In fact, it could easily do the opposite -- cf welfare babies.)

One of the roots of the problem, IMO, is increasing benefits for people who have more kids while on benefits. This guarantees a poverty death spiral. Yet who is going to be the hard-assed jerk who cuts people off? President Clinton ran through a welfare reform that cut people off after 5 years, something I support still. Maybe we need to force beneficiaries into public works projects, but work them so that working people don't get pushed out by cheap welfare labor?

I really, really wish I had a solid answer and not a bunch of anecdotes.