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That's why in every other country that has paid parental leave, the leave is covered by society and not your employer. Again a public good like raising the next

• cookiecaper 10y ago
  >That's why in every other country that has paid parental leave, the leave is covered by society and not your employer. That's not totally true. Many countries require the employer to pay at least some of the leave. >Again a public good like raising the next generation should be paid for by the public. This is absolutely not the American perspective. Americans don't think of their children as "public goods", and the expectation is that everyone will support themselves and their offspring, and that individual charity will be accommodated by voluntary private activity as necessary. This isn't based on selfishness, but a belief that if you don't want your children to be wards of the state, they shouldn't be dependent on it for their sustenance. The European system is looked upon with suspicion out here, to say the least. America is not a big government place.
  • infinite8s 10y ago
    Yeah, that's fundamentally the difference between European/Canadian and American mindsets - one trusts the government while the other holds it in suspicion. Of course, that also reflects in the vast income disparities between the two groups of societies. I'd much rather be in the bottom 80% in Canada or Europe than in America.
• schmidty 10y ago
  > covered by society why is this preferred? make everyone pay for it? make everyone who doesnt have kids poorer? pass the money through the government that takes a cut of it to administer the program leaving less money on the other side. i dont see the good in any of it