25 I absolutely hear you on the way the courts deal with disintegrating marriages vs other breaches of contract or regulatory offences. Why should marriage, which is lauded as "more than just a piece of paper" because it has legal significance, be treated as anything less than a partnership agreement?
There are rights and obligations in partnerships that if are not explicitly spelled out in the agreement are still there in law. If one partner acts dishonestly or to the detriment of the other, they would be negatively impacted in a court-ordered asset split. Why shouldn't it be the same for marriage partners?
My XH seemed to deeply care about the whole family's welfare (including mine), but his actions showed it was always all about him. He presented much of the family expenditure on his career requirements as 'investment', and we all just had to take it on trust that everybody else's wants had to go second. It wasn't until he siphoned money out of our joint account after separation that I realised the values I thought we'd shared for well over two decades were just window dressing for him.
Now XH is reaping the benefits of our investment in his career - and crying poor to anybody who will listen. Sometimes I sit back and wonder how I didn't see how badly misaligned our values and morals really were. Now, I often ask myself, "If I met this man for the first time tonight would I be romantically interested?"
I really don't think I would. Who wants to date somebody who moans about money yet talks incessantly about his expensive car, his overseas trips, private jets and multi-thousand dollar gadgets?
