Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by burntwater 3001 days ago
"Women (or whomever is the primary caregiver in a family or does more domestic labor at home) should be paid more for fewer hours in the workplace."

Why should anyone be compensated anything for routine life-management work? What you're asking is akin to saying everyone should be paid to sleep. Sleeping, bathing, eating, maintaining the home -- these are all parts of functioning as a human. Taking care of children is a function of having chosen to have offspring - I would say it's a voluntary hobby, even.
2 comments
Frondo 3001 days ago
As a proponent of a universal basic income, I would agree that yes, you should also be paid for sleep.
link
burntwater 3001 days ago
And under a plan where EVERYONE equally receives that UBI, I can see how you can say it's "being paid to sleep."

Under a plan where people are being paid unequal amounts simply for being alive, that's where it's wrong.

link
door3 3001 days ago
Raising a child is not just "being alive". It requires a tremendous amount of uncompensated labor.
link
door3 3001 days ago
Because unless you’re an antinatalist, some people having children is socially necessary. If the next generation had no children, society would collapse. Also, many women have unplanned pregnancies.
link
Mononokay 3001 days ago
> Because unless you’re an antinatalist, some people having children is socially necessary. If the next generation had no children, society would collapse. Also, many women have unplanned pregnancies.

And that's the fault of the employer . . . how? If they have a child, it shouldn't be subsidized by their employer. Everyone in the West could abstain from having children for three generations and immigrants would make up the numbers - there's no need for most people to have children.

link
burntwater 3001 days ago
Society would shrink, it would not collapse.

Pregnancy is a natural consequence of sex. There's no such thing as a truly unexpected pregnancy. Undesired and unplanned perhaps, but not unexpected. In the event it does happen, there are options for either continuing or ending the pregnancy, I still see no reason why anyone should be compensated for voluntarily choosing to continue the pregnancy.

link
door3 3001 days ago
I guess "people that aren't rich have the right to comfortably raise a family" is an axiom that I had that I didn't really expect to have to defend.
link