For most of human history, the family was the first and strongest form of government. Fathers provided structure, mothers provided nurture, and together they provided stability, discipline, and love.

Disputes were settled in the home or the community, not in courtrooms or social media platforms. Welfare came from family networks, not government agencies.

So how did we get from that world… to this one? A world where the state monitors households, dictates custody, funds itself through child support enforcement, and replaces fathers with caseworkers and court orders?

The simple truth is, this didn’t happen by accident. It was engineered.

⚙️ Industrial Revolution: Families Fragmented

As men left farms for factories, women and children followed into wage labor. The home shifted from being the center of production to being dependent on outside income. Schools and state programs stepped in to fill gaps, and for the first time, the family’s power began to shrink while the state’s grew.

🏛️ Legal & Political Turning Points

• No-Fault Divorce (1969):
  Marriage turned from covenant into contract, easy to dissolve.
  
• Tender Years Doctrine & “Best Interests” Standard:
  Courts gained wide discretion over custody, displacing natural parental authority.
  
• Title IV-D Funding (1975):
  States began receiving federal reimbursement for child support enforcement, creating a financial incentive to separate families.

💸 Welfare & the “No Man in the Home” Rule

Programs like AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) penalized households where fathers were present, effectively incentivizing single motherhood. To receive benefits, the man had to be absent. This didn’t just undermine fathers, it rewired the culture of family itself.

👮 From Peace Officers to Policy Enforcers

Police power was originally meant to protect health, safety, and welfare. But over time, it expanded without limits. Officers who were once “keepers of the peace” became enforcers of policies that regulate family life, from truancy laws and child support warrants to CPS investigations and victimless “crimes.”

🔄 The Net Result: Family Down, State Up

Every policy shift had the same effect: weaken the authority of the family, strengthen the reach of the state. What was once private - love, discipline, inheritance, parenting - became public and regulated. The result? Generations raised to see the government as the ultimate parent & authority.

📜 What Culture R.I.C.H. Proposes

If the system imposed itself on the family through policy, law, and profit, then the solution must come through structure, order, and sovereignty at the family level.

At Culture R.I.C.H., we don’t just analyze the problem - we build the remedy.

1. Reassert Family as the First Government:
   Create family constitutions, covenants, and trusts that set rules, resolve disputes, and govern property outside of courtrooms.
   
   
2. De-Incentivize Family Separation:
   Reform Title IV-D funding structures that monetize custody battles and child support enforcement. Incentives should support stability, father involvement, and cooperative parenting.
   
   
3. Educate Families on Private Agreements:
   Use private contracts, co-parenting agreements, and mediation models that preserve order without turning love into litigation.
   
   
4. Restore Peacekeeping, Not Policy Policing:
   Return police power to protecting communities from harm, not regulating victimless behavior. Support ordinances and ballot measures that decriminalize nonviolent acts and limit intrusion into family life.
   
   
5. Shift Budgets From Incarceration to Education & Family Support:
   Redirect dollars from prisons, fines, and enforcement into schools, family wellness, and community housing. Budgets are moral documents.

Bottom line: The state grew strong because families grew weak. Our mission is to reverse that trend - not by begging government for permission, but by building families that govern themselves with discipline, order, and love.

📢 Final Word

The attack on the family is not just cultural - it’s historical, legal, and financial. The government imposed itself not because men and women failed to love each other, but because policies, courts, and funding streams made it profitable to intervene.

Love is Law. Family is Business. Power begins at home.