Thursday, January 04, 2007

Brilliant Ideas That Will Never Work: emotional alimony

In marriages when one spouse is generally dependent on the other spouse for financial support, if the couple divorces then the supporter is expected to pay a certain amount of alimony to the supportee, especially if the supporter initiates the divorce. This can be temporary or permanent, depending on the circumstances.

But married couples don't just support each other financially. What if there was alimony for the other things that married couples provide to each other? Examples:

Emotional alimony: you must provide your spouse with moral support, a sounding board, a shoulder to cry on, until such time as they can develop their own resources.

Social alimony: you must provide your spouse with access to your social network and an escort to any major social events, until such time as they can develop their own resources.

Household alimony: if you are solely responsible for cooking/mowing the lawn/sewing on buttons/killing yucky bugs, you must provide your spouse with support in these areas until such time as they can develop their own resources.

No, I have no idea how it would be calculated or enforced.

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