| It's not just about economics but about forming bonds with ones child. This is one of the most important things you can do if you're having a family. Regarding the economics: In the end someone is going to have to look after the kids. Looking at how much it costs to have kids, your argument makes no sense, too. If you just work and don't have children, you get paid the whole time and you also don't have to pay the enormous amount of money an extra human life costs. So actually in the society you're proposing, having children would be even more of an economic drain than it is now, while parents would also miss out on the opportunity to form bonds with their child, therefore significantly worsening the child's life and maybe also even damage its psyche permanently ("my parents where never there for me" etc). Because not even remotely everyone can afford unpaid leave. In the end, what you're arguing for is to worsen everyone's life just so you don't feel treated unfairly, even of you are not. For the argument that the company has a problem by so called private choices: this is life. People get children. Self reproduction is basically the purpose of humanity. If your company (or to an extent your society) does not have the productivity to pay for their workers temporarily leaving, maybe it's just a shitty company. If your workers don't care for each other well being, maybe the company is just not a place worth of existence. Humans gotta look out for each other. That's basic human social behavior. That's what we're here for. As an employer of 10 people, I'm always happy to allow my workers taking off time for their children. Happens about once a year since I'm in the organization. Also we don't pay the full amount of the costs because it's subsidized by the state. Children are awesome. Parents are awesome. And giving both the opportunity to form a bond, to not be stressed out and depressed, to make a basis for all the things they will become, all the things they will achieve in their later lifes, because they are healthy, loving, social humans – that's awesome. |