Posner and Becker were adamantly opposed to no-fault divorce, not out of any overt moral concern with the decline of family life (the rising divorce rates of the late twentieth century were inevitable, Becker insists) but because of the potential social costs involved in supporting dependent women and children. When women and men fail to privatize the costs of their sexual behavior, instead transferring these costs to the state, neoliberals make an exceptional case for the imposition of noncontractual obligations. In cases of marital dissolution then, the legal responsibilities of marital and child support must take precedence over the wishes of the parties involved.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 241