Who pays?

What do we do about child maintenance? Can I suggest a radical (and probably unwelcome) approach? Basic question - who is responsible for the problem? The easy answer is the non-custodial parent who is failing to pay, but aren't we in danger of treating the symptom as if it were the disease? Society, through its various governments over the years has created a climate in which the break-up of families through divorce is seen as a perfectly acceptable consequence of the collapse of a personal relationship. So shouldn't society face up to its responsibilities and pick up the tab? In other words, shouldn't child maintenance be paid through general taxation by all of us? And if this is an unwelcome solution, then perhaps we should take a step - or several steps - backwards, and make marriage more difficult to get into, and - if children are involved - far more difficult to get out of. It's all too easy to wash our hands of a problem which is mainly of our own making.