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Do you think wives were idle all day at home? It's one thing to be in the work force vs being at home and idle, and it's another to be in the work force vs at

Do you think wives were idle all day at home? It's one thing to be in the work force vs being at home and idle, and it's another to be in the work force vs at home clean / caring for children, etc.

VLM 10y ago
People already predisposed to being idle are already idle and always will be. People feeling the social pressure to do stuff, already do stuff and always will. Its interesting to watch retired people. Some social groups do just sit at home and watch TV and get inebriated, and no government program is going to stop them, or start them down that path. Others do all kinds of volunteer crazy work. My retired MiL has a near part time job of volunteer work, around 20 hrs week. My wife was unemployed for awhile many years ago and she did some volunteer work to pad the resume and took training and educational classes. All the classes were theoretically STEM/useful but were completely useless in practice (if there's no job, it doesn't matter if you're now a freshly minted MCSE of Excel if there's no job). My near retirement accountant neighbor can do nothing accounting like on his own, although he could have helped me a lot when I was a treasurer for a volunteer org, I was pretty lost the first few weeks. Also he spends about ten hours a week in his woodworking shop and I suspect after 40 years he's pretty tired of accounting even if he is an expert. He's a better woodworker than I (and I'm not that bad) so if we were both out of work permanently I'd probably apprentice under him for a few years. Worthless people are going to be worthless and that's always been the case. People who aren't worthless are always going to be doing something (maybe not what you like or expect, but they'll be nose to grindstone on something...) and that's always been the case. A mere economic policy isn't going to change any of that. Much like being fired or downsized usually doesn't change most people forever, merely being fired or downsized forever isn't going to change most people very much.

Do you think wives were idle all day at home? It's one thing to be in the work force vs being at home and idle, and it's another to be in the work force vs at home clean / caring for children, etc.

VLM 10y ago

People already predisposed to being idle are already idle and always will be. People feeling the social pressure to do stuff, already do stuff and always will. Its interesting to watch retired people. Some social groups do just sit at home and watch TV and get inebriated, and no government program is going to stop them, or start them down that path. Others do all kinds of volunteer crazy work. My retired MiL has a near part time job of volunteer work, around 20 hrs week. My wife was unemployed for awhile many years ago and she did some volunteer work to pad the resume and took training and educational classes. All the classes were theoretically STEM/useful but were completely useless in practice (if there's no job, it doesn't matter if you're now a freshly minted MCSE of Excel if there's no job). My near retirement accountant neighbor can do nothing accounting like on his own, although he could have helped me a lot when I was a treasurer for a volunteer org, I was pretty lost the first few weeks. Also he spends about ten hours a week in his woodworking shop and I suspect after 40 years he's pretty tired of accounting even if he is an expert. He's a better woodworker than I (and I'm not that bad) so if we were both out of work permanently I'd probably apprentice under him for a few years. Worthless people are going to be worthless and that's always been the case. People who aren't worthless are always going to be doing something (maybe not what you like or expect, but they'll be nose to grindstone on something...) and that's always been the case. A mere economic policy isn't going to change any of that. Much like being fired or downsized usually doesn't change most people forever, merely being fired or downsized forever isn't going to change most people very much.