Texas Values: On Divorce Reform

Several months ago, we had coffee with David Walls of Texas Values.  During that conversation, he raised several cogent points about the economic costs of America's culture of promiscuity, a point we've addressed in the past.  Today, he's got a must read post on the Texas Values blog on how easy divorce inevitably leads to the expansion of government; some highlights:

Every year, it is estimated that family fragmentation costs the government (and taxpayers), conservatively, $112 billion in divorce and single-parent related social programs.  That is over 1 trillion dollars every decade.

At the state level, family fragmentation is estimated to cost the State of Texas roughly $3 billion every year.  Just in 2010 alone the number of divorces in Texas exceeded 82,000, impacting nearly 65,000 children under the age of 18.

....

From that moment forward the government is directly involved in the lives of your checkbook and your kids for the rest of their childhood lives as you must follow a court order of when you can see your kids, when you have to pay child support, when and if you are allowed to move, how long you can see your kids on their birthdays and holidays, and so on.

Divorce increases government intrusion into personal lives. Long story short, if you want to keep government out of your personal life, don’t get a divorce.

This is a very, very interesting idea.  As we've studied the relationship between the culture of promiscuity and various economic/moral pathologies, it has become obvious that easy divorce is a central villain.  Restoring divorce laws could be a devastatingly effective strategy that unites conservatives concerned with economic and family issues.

Stay tuned.