Esteemed blogger/journalist Matt Welch has written an article about the major threat to civil liberties in our time for Reason magazine:
It’s about how innocent men’s lives get ruined by states who are incentivized by the Welfare Reform Act to name fathers of welfare-receiving children & then take over the collection process from the “deadbeat dads,” even if there is DNA evidence proving that the men never fathered the children they’ve never seen. Unless you are already familiar with this system, you literally will not believe the extent to which these poor guys (and I mean literally poor) are basically presumed guilty, and then systematically overwhelmed by the voracious state. And even if the Child Support people know they’re not the father, they won’t stop until the last dollar is collected, with interest.
The story is not in the online space yet, and I’ll have more to say about it after I’ve read it. I’d encourage anyone interested in civil liberities to get the current copy of Reason today.
The article is online now. See link. Prof. Reynolds even linked to it, which is a good thing.