My response to Pooja Bedi's blog on "What is the purpose of alimony" . The Equality Trap we are into !!

Pooja Bedi Wrote and I quote ////What is the purpose of alimony? To ensure that a woman who has sacrificed a career or been denied a right to earn or has been restricted to being a housewife is compensated for it and kept in the same comfort/level she is now accustomed to.////

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Hello Ms. Pooja

don't you see the slippery slope you are on the moment you say "...and kept in the same comfort/level she is now accustomed to......" ??

Let me explain with an example

Take the case of married couple. Married two ..three years ago, with no kids so far, they live in husband's father's 4 bedroom house, in a posh area in a metro ...say Delhi or Mumbai or Bangalore .... 

Husband earns Rs. 50,000 a month, wife ended up the "...no experience...person..." you mentioned, because she did not go to work 

At the end of year three ... they split / decide to splut 

NOW ...NOW .... using your "....and kept in the same comfort/level she is now accustomed to......"  wife will say I am USED to the POSH 4 BEDROOM HOUSE I lived in

I cant go to some far away place...or to some third rate place

Give me a share ...OF THAT FOUR BEDROOM house in the POSH area !!!!

DEAR OH DEAR !! what do you do ?? 

So, Let me give you MY understanding ......

alimony started as subsistence

Then it became MORE than subsistence , a little more than subsistence, but government had caps on how much 

Long ago government removed the caps, and Now alimony is equality !!

The moment you go to "...NO need to EARN equality, you will  be GIVEN equality...." that is doom ... doom for the doer ... doom for the industrious and in the long term, doom for the country 

but NOT so much doom for the dalals and dealers who make money ...who get a CUT from the maintenance the MAN PAYS !!!

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regards--

vinayak