Below is a letter written to John Stossel, of the TV show 20/20 by one of the Alimony Slaves:
Dear Mr. Stossel:
I am writing you to encourage you to investigate the injustices of the family courts in Florida and their apparent negative impact on Florida’s citizens. There are women who are paying permanent alimony to men and men paying permanent alimony to women as a result of court injustices and what I believe are grossly unconstitutional and un-American laws. So, I thought you might be interested in some of the information on permanent alimony.
Permanent alimony is applied as part of Florida State law and forces one person to financially support the other for the rest of their lives because they were at one time married with a state marriage license and later dissolved that marriage. As a hard working professional , I am opposed to a system that promotes the permanent sustenance of ONE individual providing required lifetime support for another, whether they be male or female.
Whether married or divorced, each individual should be able to "choose" at what level they would like to be employed and should certainly not be REQUIRED by law and under threat of imprisonment, perpetual judicial harassment, and legal squandering of their assets, to support another's lifestyle at a pre-established earning capacity, particularly if they are no longer committed in a marital relationship.
Women are no longer dependent on men nor are men dependent on women. Employment opportunities are such that both genders can equally provide for a household independently, which the courts should recognize. I understand that sometimes alimony in addition to child support is needed by women who have been granted sole custody of children. But, if you look closely at even these circumstances you will see that the rulings of the judges in these cases many times causes the need for both payments from one individual. Men many times collapse emotionally and psychologically and have actually committed suicide and murder after being forced to bear these burdens alone. While, at the same time being stripped of the right to share in the custody and upbringing of their children.
Permanent alimony jeopardizes working and social values of both genders by "enabling" an employment vacation ticket to the recipient who "chooses" not to work to continue reaping an "entitlement" of free income FOREVER while the paying person is forced into a condition of involuntary servitude to them. Florida, a great state, unfortunately, has made the dire error of making this "permanent vacation ticket" a reality for many middle class, average citizens.
Alimony amongst those of great wealth has reduced impact, however, the working class is unable to balance the injustice of providing for more than one household and many times unable to even provide for themselves in order to meet the state’s demands. Most temporary situations in life "resolvable" if effort is made to improve circumstances, however, if ONE individual chooses to NOT participate in resolving, by unemploying, under employing and/or refusing to improve themselves and their own issues, another individual should not be required to provide for the "void" in differences.
Understandably, some states have recognized an error in permanent alimony and have adopted reasonable laws that limit the duration of the recipient i.e. Texas/3 year limit. But in Florida which has one of the highest concentrations of lawyers per capita in the United States, divorce has been turned into a legal con game that seeks only to keep an individual engaged in a perpetual courtroom struggle to separate themselves from another individual while they are slowly milked of every asset they have ever owned or will own. This keeps billions of dollars flowing into the coffers of the legal profession and their lobbyists in the legislature and cripples any effort at reform.
Permanent alimony is "slavery". The providers of permanent alimony currently are required to maintain an "imputed income" level for their entire lives. They have no right to retire, slow their lifestyle, or in any way separate themselves from the whims of a judge who has been given perpetual control of their lives by the state legislature. Judges have literally been given the power to create law from the bench in family courts. A person entering family court has absolutely non of the constitutional rights afforded even vilest murderers and consequently must surrender any hope of ever being a free, sentient human being afterwards.
There ARE women who pay permanent alimony also but the numbers are significantly smaller than men who are paying which also establishes a government system of “cloaked” gender bias. This has resulted in a decline of marriage estimated to be somewhere near 40% since enactment of these laws.
Those held in the perpetual "bondage" of permanent alimony are denied the basic human rights of choice, happiness and individual freedom.
Please consider revealing this evil hidden scheme of the Florida state government and publish information which can assist in bringing unbiased information aimed at justice for both the men and woman of our state who have been mistreated by Florida courts. We stand ready, willing, and able, to provide you with more than enough evidence to support our claims.
Sincerely,
XXXX
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