Child support is a percentage of your pay, so it has nothing to do with poverty. So that just leaves people who are bad with money management. Yes, threaten to take away their driving privilege instead of jail time. Put them in a position that forces them to meet their legal obligations. Child support is not some tax or fee or fine. It pays for food and shelter for children. The poorer spouse is usually the one that gets it. So if you don't enforce it, then you are directly punishing the poorer spouse (with the children) because the other one is "too bad with money management".