HakunaMatada: You say a perfect world, but really, we’re not in one. Do you deny that we’re on a different madreigah, in different circumstances, from am Yisrael in the midbar?
There is no OBLIGATION for one to rely on someone else to learn Torah.
A) Where is the father in law’s money coming from?
B) While I’ve heard it argued that a wife can be mochel on that section of the kesubah, if she doesn’t want to be, she has every right to ask her husband to live up to it.
Fact is, however good and proper the concept of kollel may be, it hasn’t been the norm pretty much ever until now- are we on a higher madreigah now than any other generation with regard to this?
(BTW: I really have no objection to kollel, though I’m not entirely sure I’d want to marry a kollel guy myself- my objection is to your bit about “no excuse” on the bottom there.)