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Having children is a life choice in a social context by definition. Along your lines of argumentation, someone could make absurd arguments like that when you re

by cgio 10y ago

Having children is a life choice in a social context by definition. Along your lines of argumentation, someone could make absurd arguments like that when you retire you should not be allowed benefits paid for from the tax base you made the choice to not enhance. Or should you be allowed to employ or even work with people who were raised and educated at the expense of people who made the choice to do so? Paternity and Maternity leave is a drop in the ocean in subsidizing the expenses parents make or the benefits of their choice to society.

wyager 10y ago
> when you retire you should not be allowed benefits paid for from the tax base you made the choice to not enhance. While I'm having trouble parsing this sentence, I believe you're saying that we shouldn't give money to retirees because they're economically unproductive. I agree, except that most retirement programs (nominally) required retirees to put in money before they retired, so it's at least plausible to claim that they're owed that money, having already paid for it. > Or should you be allowed to employ or even work with people who were raised and educated at the expense of people who made the choice to do so? Not sure what you're saying here. As far as I'm concerned, employment should be a mutual agreement to trade labor for resources. Not sure how the way they were raised comes into it. > Paternity and Maternity leave is a drop in the ocean in subsidizing the expenses parents make or the benefits of their choice to society. While I disagree that people having children in general is good for society, let's leave that aside; we don't feel the need to have the government subsidize (or force companies to subsidize) every "good" behavior, like being nice or having a job. There is no need to subsidize people having children, because they will do it anyway. It's a lifestyle choice, not a public service.

by cgio 10y ago

wyager 10y ago

> when you retire you should not be allowed benefits paid for from the tax base you made the choice to not enhance. While I'm having trouble parsing this sentence, I believe you're saying that we shouldn't give money to retirees because they're economically unproductive. I agree, except that most retirement programs (nominally) required retirees to put in money before they retired, so it's at least plausible to claim that they're owed that money, having already paid for it. > Or should you be allowed to employ or even work with people who were raised and educated at the expense of people who made the choice to do so? Not sure what you're saying here. As far as I'm concerned, employment should be a mutual agreement to trade labor for resources. Not sure how the way they were raised comes into it. > Paternity and Maternity leave is a drop in the ocean in subsidizing the expenses parents make or the benefits of their choice to society. While I disagree that people having children in general is good for society, let's leave that aside; we don't feel the need to have the government subsidize (or force companies to subsidize) every "good" behavior, like being nice or having a job. There is no need to subsidize people having children, because they will do it anyway. It's a lifestyle choice, not a public service.