Divorce rate

Okay, the numbers are from the Netherlands but a divorce rate of 40 percent is still something that warrants out attention here.

The institute of marriage is no longer the rock solid recipe for a happy future, and the divorce rate only tells half the story because many couples don’t even bother and opt for simply living together – yet they do split up as well.

The consequences of this trend for any community are devastating; single parent families are struggling to make ends meet and they have less time to spend with their children who are more often than not left to their own devices. Everybody knows what that causes.

Against this background, the fiscal rules that benefit married couples and disadvantage those who are not married, must be revisited.

In St. Maarten the first step is gathering reliable data. Since we have been talking like forever about reshaping our fiscal system anyway, this aspect should not go unnoticed.