Procreating in the United States is a right, but paid maternity leave is not. That is, if you want a baby, by golly, you can have a baby. You don’t have to pass any tests, you don’t have to be married, heck, you don’t even have to get pregnant thanks to surrogates or good old-fashioned adoption. Want to be a parent? Awesome. Go do that.
But it’s not your right to ask other people to support you while you fulfill your baby dreams.
There. Now that we have the tough love portion out of the way, let’s talk about why a federal law requiring paid maternity or paternity leave is a bad idea for the United States: Because we’re different.
America is nation founded on personal responsibility and self-sufficiency. It takes nine months to make a baby, surely that’s enough time to save some dough to take time off when the little one arrives. Thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act, if your company has 50 or more employees, your employer has to hold your job for you for twelve weeks.
Moms that work for smaller companies shouldn’t despair; employers put a lot of training into you, and if you work hard and are good at your job, they’ll be happy to welcome you back after a few months of baby-bonding. Many companies nowadays even offer flexible schedules that include some work-at-home time.
More from The Stir: American Women Deserve Paid Maternity Leave
Sure, other nations have laws requiring paid maternity leave. Jody Heymann, author of Raising the Global Floor: Dismantling the Myth That We Can’t Afford Good Working Conditions for Everyone, points out that, “The U.S. is the only high-income nation not to have paid maternity leave, while almost all middle- and low-income countries offer it, too.”
Time to put two and two together, sweetheart. Why do you think it is that the United States is a high-income nation? Because employers get to pay their employees the money they’re not paying to others to take time off. The more businesses have to shell out for paid leave, taxes, etc., the less they can pay the people actually producing work for them. When you make doing business cost-prohibitive, people will stop doing business.
I thought we were supposed to be strong, liberated women. Now we’re demanding that other people take care of us? What’s that about? Motherhood is a wonderful, beautiful, certainly strange thing, and the decision to take it on is monumental -- but it’s unfair to ask others to pay for your life choices.
Image via ilamont/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Comments 216
Maternity pay will be taxed and its only a fraction of what
I would normally make. My maternity pay comes from the EI that I pay on every check. I think I would rather my tax
Money go to a women Or man
Wanting to spend some quality time with
Their offspring then some one who can't be bothered to find a job. I pay for EI and would like to see some benefit from it at least once in my life.
There is a balance between personal responsibility and the common good. Sure, having kids is an individual choice, but our collective future depends on having healthy kids and healthy moms. Maternity leave contributes to the goal of healthy kids and moms.
Having been fired while on maternity leave, in my personal experience the FMLA is a joke with more exceptions and holes than swiss cheese. It is not strong to put up with being screwed over. The future of our country depends on our children. So as a nation we need to put up and support those children and families.
If we don't well, here is an essay on the consequences of falling below replacement rate, which the US is just below. The reason we aren't in the same boat as a Europe and other industrialized countries is partly because of ...immigration. Keep making it financially and personally difficult for people to have jobs and a family, and soon you'll be begging for people to come here and have "anchor" babies, just to keep our economy going.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/opinion/brooks-the-fertility-implosion.html
Having kids maybe a personal choice, but at the same time people having children is necessary and beneficial to the economy and society as a whole.
If people in prison can have blogs, then we should get paid for maternity leave! Idiot.....
Maxing out the Short Term Disability thy an employee has been paying for via paycheck deductions....
Legalize pot, cutting down on the prison population, and tax it. Use the proceeds to pay for maternity leave! Everyone wins!
Bonus, fewer prison blogs?
Yes Bertha21 because that is SO relevant. What does that even mean?????? Idiot? Us?? LOLOLOLOL!!
Billsfan you can go screw. Personally I am not one that has very good debating skills. I happen to think her opinion was a little fucked up so I expressed my opinion that I disagree with hers. Did I give as much information as she did? no. wanna know why? ITS THE FUCKING INTERNET. If we were having this discussion in person I would gladly let her know my reasons. Since when do I have to explain my every thought on the Internet?