Complex Numbers

Leave

Today's linked article turns feel-good stories into feel-bad stories.

https://thinkprogress.org/do-the-impossible-never-complain-live-the-dream-the-da...

Stories like this keep popping up on Twitter like zits on a prepubescent forehead: The sunshiney announcement about the GoFundMe for the guy with leukemia who can’t pay for his own medical costs. (He is employed by an organization whose owner has a net worth of $5.2 billion.) The dad who works three jobs to support his family saving up to buy his 14-year-old daughter a dress for an eighth grade dance. The college student who ran 20 miles to work after his car broke down and whose boss rewarded him for this effort by giving him his own car.

Do you get a sinking feeling when you read these stories? This feeling like, while of course you are impressed by the tenacity and generosity on display, you still want to vomit?

Behold, the rise of the feel-good feel-bad story.

I don't disagree with the thrust of the article. Providing for others may be more rewarding to accomplish directly, rather than indirectly through mandates. But it's been obvious to me for a while that our system is broken.

And yet - and here, I'm going to venture into controversy - I'm not convinced about the value to society at large of paid parental leave.

We don’t have federally-mandated maternity leave in the United States, making us one of the only nations on the face of the Earth to deny our citizens this basic and vital thing.

Essentially, I disagree that it's "basic and vital."

Of course, it's nice. It's definitely a benefit for parents, and probably for their children. Likely, not so much for everyone else.

The above quote links to a Pew Research study from 2016: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/26/u-s-lacks-mandated-paid-parental...

Nowhere in the article, or in the Pew study, do I see anything that explains to me how parental leave is a good thing for society. It's asserted as a given, without evidence, without even argument.

Consider this:

1) Having children is a choice. Especially in the contemporary world, virtually no one can say they brought a child into the world by accident. Pregnancy can be accidental. Birth is not.
2) While one is on leave, the employer must either do without a person's services, or find a temporary replacement. While no one is irreplaceable, this puts an undue burden on the employer.
3) As we move into a more automated workforce, the need for human workers is decreasing; therefore, it is not to the benefit of future society to encourage population growth, or even stagnation.
4) Likewise, the primary driver of many of the problems facing us today - pollution, climate change, hunger, maybe even war - is population growth. Reverse that, and some problems are mitigated.
5) Parental leave is unfair to those of us who have chosen not to reproduce. Yes, some organizations provide "family leave" for reasons other than childbirth, but we're talking about state or federally mandated leave, not a choice made by an employer.

On the other hand, I do recognize that in order to continue capitalism as we know it - profits driven by eternal growth - we need the population to increase. So you'd think more companies would be on board with this (more consumers = more profit). Again, though, I don't see how this could be a good thing overall.

Now, I can see how a policy of "no paid parental leave" affects women disproportionately. And that's not cool. But nothing I've ever seen has convinced me that mandated paid parental leave is a benefit to society in general (again, yes, it is a benefit to the individuals involved). The idea of its benefit is stated, as I've pointed out, without argument or evidence.

Thing is, I have an open mind. If you're so inclined, give me some good rationales and I could change my opinion. Not that my opinion matters either way, but at least I might understand the reasoning. (Anecdotes probably won't work; I've already acknowledged that it's a benefit for the individuals taking the leave.)