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This problem is directly connected to the true nature of the "wage gap". Women make less than men, not because they're paid less for the same work, but as a res
by sevenless 10y ago
This problem is directly connected to the true nature of the "wage gap". Women make less than men, not because they're paid less for the same work, but as a result of restricted career choices shaped by having and raising children. Where the wage gap shrinks, so does fertility. Wealthy, educated women are not going to have many kids, because it doesn't pay.
We need to recognize that raising children is vital but largely unpaid work and that this is unfair to women. Raising the next generation is a section of our economy that's not even recognized as productive labor even though everything else depends on it.
A stable society needs educated people to have kids. If you want middle-class women to have children you'd better start paying them for it like any other career.
- goldbrick 10y agoEvery thing you said was like a wild logical leap, my neck hurts from reading this.
- tropo 10y agoThis is very true, but awkward to implement. What do you propose? We could pay women. Take the number of years the woman had in school, minus ten. She gets that many $thousand per year per child. One could ignore negative numbers... or not. If this takes the place of child support, educated men might be more willing to risk becoming fathers. For tax purposes, we could divide a person's income by the number of family members. If you earn $123,000 and have 8 kids, we use $12,300 to determine your tax bracket. There are lots of ways to do this... and there will be lots of objections from those who would be better off with the current situation.
- gedy 10y agoHow about a tax rebate for previous year when you have a child?
- burfog 10y agoUnless it were huge, and scaled with income, it really wouldn't change things for the educated. Educated people earning 6 figures and getting taxed 5 figures are too smart to get excited about a 4-figure payment for roughly 22 years of supporting a child to a high standard. Ignoring interest and inflation, a lump sum of $8800 to cover 22 years is only $400 per year. That's pocket change for the educated. Make it a $million to be serious.
- Gravityloss 10y agoMany countries have paid parents leave, and they give money for a long period after the child is born too. http://www.thebump.com/a/maternity-leave-around-the-world http://www.thebump.com/a/maternity-leave-around-the-world
- ams6110 10y agoWe also need to stop poor women having kids, because that's destabilizing to society. So maybe we should tax poor women who have kids to pay for the more desireable middle class kids.
- epx 10y agoBeing a father is not easy as well, and it is unpaid work.