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Having kids is a benefit to society. Even though nobody has kids "for the greater good", it still is in everyone's interest that there is a strong upcoming gene

Having kids is a benefit to society. Even though nobody has kids "for the greater good", it still is in everyone's interest that there is a strong upcoming generation. I think it's not unreasonable for a society to pay parents who decide to stay at home during the first years for their efforts, if only to make having kids sufficiently attractive. Lots of people just can't afford to stay home and capitalism makes it hard enough to rejoin the workforce after 3 years, let alone advance your career. A societal advance in this regard would also be needed imo

lotsofpulp 3y ago
This is where theory and practice collide. In theory, society should pay parents. In practice, paying parents results in incentivizing the people you do not want being parents into having more kids. What society really wants is to incentivize good parents to have kids, but that is nowhere near possible to measure and implement.
- em-bee 3y ago
  actually it is possible: education. basically, the reason one might not want some people to have kids is their lack of education. provide them with better education and that "problem" goes away.
- leononame 3y ago
  Do you have any evidence supporting this?
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Sorry, I missed the “first years” portion of your comment. I had originally read it as simply paying people to be stay at home parents for the whole time they have children at home. Paid parental leave up until at least breastfeeding is done is a no brainer.
    - rexpop 3y ago
      Just spitballing, here, but maybe some sort of voucher system to distribute leave among all your "alloparents?" But that's hard to systematize. Probably the simplest thing is simply to increase wages and PTO across the board, and let workers/consumers act on their own priorities.
      - em-bee 3y ago
        no need for vouchers. we just need the right and the support for more people to work part time. that right for example is already law in germany. the problem is that not many people make use of it, partly because it would reduce their income but partly also because there is no broad social support for people to reduce their worktime in order to do other useful things.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

This is where theory and practice collide. In theory, society should pay parents. In practice, paying parents results in incentivizing the people you do not want being parents into having more kids. What society really wants is to incentivize good parents to have kids, but that is nowhere near possible to measure and implement.

em-bee 3y ago
actually it is possible: education. basically, the reason one might not want some people to have kids is their lack of education. provide them with better education and that "problem" goes away.
leononame 3y ago
Do you have any evidence supporting this?
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  Sorry, I missed the “first years” portion of your comment. I had originally read it as simply paying people to be stay at home parents for the whole time they have children at home. Paid parental leave up until at least breastfeeding is done is a no brainer.
  - rexpop 3y ago
    Just spitballing, here, but maybe some sort of voucher system to distribute leave among all your "alloparents?" But that's hard to systematize. Probably the simplest thing is simply to increase wages and PTO across the board, and let workers/consumers act on their own priorities.
    - em-bee 3y ago
      no need for vouchers. we just need the right and the support for more people to work part time. that right for example is already law in germany. the problem is that not many people make use of it, partly because it would reduce their income but partly also because there is no broad social support for people to reduce their worktime in order to do other useful things.