Child support is not legally intended to reward either parent. Its basic purpose is to help cover the costs of raising a child when parents live separately. Rapper Slim Thug has argued that child support should be eliminated, saying he believes some women intentionally have children with financially successful men because they expect to receive payments.

From a family-law perspective, however, child support is generally determined by factors such as parental income, custody or parenting time, and the child’s financial needs. The money is meant to help pay for necessities such as food, housing, clothing, education, health care and other expenses involved in raising a child.

Eliminating child support wouldn’t eliminate the cost of raising children. Instead, it could place a much larger financial burden on the parent providing most of the child’s daily care. In some situations, that could also increase reliance on relatives or public assistance. At the same time, concerns about fairness, payment calculations and custody arrangements have led many people to argue that the system needs improvement.

Ultimately, the debate isn’t about whether raising children costs money—it does. The bigger question is how that responsibility should be divided fairly between parents while keeping the child’s best interests at the center. Do you think child support should be eliminated, or does the system simply need major reforms?