Is alimony still a thing?

I am from NYC and alimony is alive and well here. My mother asked for alimony in her third divorce, and received it. She was in charge of student acceptance into Columbia University's Teachers College (this is one of the graduate schools at Columbia University). Bill Cosby's son was one such student that attended this Ivy League institution (until he was killed while napping at a rest stop off the highway on route to visit his father in Pennsylvania) and was accepted by my mother who didn't know he was the son of the famous comedian. She accepted people on merit, not famous names or the amount of money in ones family coffers. She also set up a memorial and grief counseling for other students, both in the graduate and undergraduate schools. She was also involved in the making of the movie "The Mirror Has Two Faces" starring Barbra Streisand. My mother loved Ms. Streisand's singing and acting prior to their meeting, but the exacting (read: crazy) standards that she wanted while filming drove my mom nuts. Streisand, who filmed this movie during the summer (while there were less bodies on campus) even though it was meant to be winter-time in the movie. She had my mother instruct grounds crews to plant conifers (at Streisand's expense) around the campus to add to the winter holiday atmosphere. She also said that she could hear (although not a single other person did) a squeal in the air conditioning vents in one of the classrooms where co-star Jeff Bridges was to be filming several scenes. My mother had to get the engenders to turn off a/c for the entire building, much to the dismay of actual students and professors (as well as the cast and behind the scenes people involved) since it was 90+ degrees F. Streisand also demanded that no one smoke cigarettes on campus, least they accidentally get filmed with the cancer sticks in hand or mouth. My mother, fed up with Babs by thus time, would walk in the background of every outdoors scene with a lit cigarette in her mouth and one in her hand (my mother had quit smoking 9 years earlier, but risked relapse just to piss off dear old Barbra). Just to note, she would only do this during Barbra's scenes, as all the other actors were fabulously friendly - Lauren Bacall had been long time friends of my mother from the 1970's when my mother worked as an insurance agent to the rich and famous.
I mention this film, and this school because my mother loved working there, (one fun highlight: she and George Stephenopolous would take the train together every morning) and loved her students. She quite to take care of her mother who was given only a few months to live after getting diagnosed with end stage breast cancer. She quit her job before telling husband #3, but he was fine with it. She went back to work after a year, this time exploring her creative ability outside of academia, at the 2ns largest advertising company worldwide. After years of being the head of the language and graphics department, I nearly died of Crohn's Disease related problems, and she decided to quit this job to take care of me (her only child and daughter). Her husband actually requested this of her. She tried working and mothering/nursing, but it was too much, so she finally chose that which was most important (ME!!). She filed for divorce from her husband some time later and requested ONE YEAR of alimony, plus to have him keep her covered under a health insurance and prescription medication plan for the remainder of her life, or his, which ever happened first (he was Superintendent of the NYC Transit Authority at the time). #3 just wanted a legal separation, not a divorce, but my mother wasn't stupid, and neither was her lawyer. Since my mother owned her house before marriage to him (it was originally her parents) he was not entitled to a part of it, and her lawyer thought that since hubby #3 requested or conceded with her not working to take care of family, he thought she was entitled to lost income on my mothers side. He got my mother THREE YEARS of Alimony (which he later extended to FIVE) even in the event of another marriage (she didn't remarry) as well as his ENTIRE PENSION SAVINGS and HALF OF HIS BANK ACCOUNTS. He was allowed to stay in my mother house for three months until he found other housing. My mother never asked for alimony (or even half of their marital assets, which included a house in the city, three properties in upstate NY, a 5-cabin yacht, a car, truck and motorcycle or even half of the money in the bank accounts; all of the above had my mothers name as co-owner, except for the motor vehicles since she never had a drivers license) from my father (even though they divorced when I was only 18 months old), only child support, their primary residence at the time, and her engagement ring (which she sold, and lived off the proceeds for three years until I started school and she went back to work).
So, yes alimony still exists, not just if one person makes significantly more than the other person. My mother made roughly the same amount as hubby #3 and got all listed above. The only thing is one must ask for it in the divorce, as with anything else in life, you don't get what you don't ask for. It was more important that my mother had primary custody (although my father always had a key to the house I lived in as a child, even when my mother had remarried, and saw me nearly every day, or we spoke on the phone several times a day, or both). My parents never fought over visitation, and a visitation order was never asked or given in the divorce. My parents both knew that I needed both of them in my life, although they could not be married to each other any longer (they were married for 7 years, but dated on and off since my mom was 10 years old). My parents were like brother and sister after divorcing, even living together (35 years later) when my father had to be on dialysis for a congenital kidney disease. Each situation calls for its own set of circumstances. With my dad, my mother knew that things and money were important to him, and not to her (although my mother made sure that my father never had me go without a single thing, at least 2 holidays were educational field trips at 5-Star Resorts and first class or private transportation, around the world, and he even paid for my private schooling, Undergraduate University, Masters degree, 2 PhD's and my Medical School simply because he wasn't forced into paying for more than legally required through the courts). He would have got away cheaper if my mother had asked for half of everything (and she would have got it too), but she knew that she had financials taken care of in her own right, by doing so, she insured a father-child (again I am the only child/daughter of both of my parents) bond, since she and my father had different views on money and possessions.

Re "most divorced guys" - I know a lot of divorced people, and none of them pays or receives alimony, which is why I asked the question.

Who are "they" (who will rake you over coals)?

How much do you pay in alimony? Is it limited to a certain time period, or is it indefinite until your ex-spouse's next marriage, the way the one guy on the show pays?