[acdha]

Most of us live in market economies. Jobs which are truly considered to be important have respect and pay well. In contrast, in the U.S. we don't even respect mothers enough to e.g. give them enough time to fully recover from giving birth before going back to work or ensure that nobody has to worry about losing their job or income if they take a sick kid to the doctor.

[mercer]

Man, I don't want to derail this conversation, but I have so many feelings about this issue. And they often conflict.

As someone raised in a very traditional religious environment, I am not a big fan of the market economy approach of quantifying and anonymizing roles (including that of my local grocer or 'fishmonger', to name an example).

But on the other hand, we live where we live, and in this world I figure if we don't respect mothers because their role is difficult to express in money, we should at the very least fix that and give them all the support they need, monetary, paid leave, or otherwise.

[loco5niner]

> Jobs which are truly considered to be important have respect and pay well

Correction: Jobs that return a very positive cash flow (for someone) pay well. (Teachers, Cops, Firefighters vs Brokers, Singers, Pro Athletes)

[acdha]

I'm not sure those examples mean what you say – e.g. teachers are allegedly important but get paid far less than your other two examples, have increasingly regimented working conditions and are popularly blamed for circumstances outside of their control. In contrast, it's far less common for anyone to e.g. go after first responders’ pay or benefits or talk about how public safety depends on breaking their union.

Unsurprisingly, that respect gradient also tracks closely which jobs are stereotypically female-dominated. Even staying in education, school administrators - historically male – get more respect for comparable levels of education and are paid more for doing less work.

Again, the point is simply that our talk isn't backed up by our actions.