Working for Lifestyle/Extras
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| Mon, 11-20-2006 - 11:13am |
Hi Ladies :)
This is my first time on this debate board and I have been dying to jump into some of the topics, but I feel as though they are sooooo long (one in particular is over 1000 replies, yikes!) that starting my own specific one might work out better.
Anyhow, a recurring theme here seems to be what Moms should and shouldn't be going to work for. It seems some are of the opinion that is OK for Mom to work if she must to pay her bills but NOT if its to afford a nice car, house, good neighborhood. This is considered keeping up with the Johnses (who are they???) and thats bad.
Well, I want to know what in the heck is wrong with a women working to have nice things? I don't mean working and leaving baby in child care 16 hours a day, everyday...thats pretty extreme.
I enjoyed a certain lifestyle before having a child, should I have downsized that lifestyle once baby came so I didn't have to work? What about me *wanting* to maintain a certain lifestyle for myself, my husband, and my child makes me a (a) workaholic or (b) striving to keep up with the Joneses?
Don't some people (like myself) simply enjoy living in a nice place with nice things and want their children to have the same experience?
So please, anyone who thinks a women is wrong for WOH if she is not doing so to financially survive but does it to maintain a certain lifestyle...whats wrong with this?
Thanks all :)

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I am aware that tax rates are lower in the US than in Scandinavia. My point was that Americans also get very little for the taxes they DO pay. Tally up what a family of 4 has to pay for childcare, preschools, health care, dental care, college etc in the US and then compare that over a lifetime to what an average, middleclass Scandinavian family pays in taxes above the American family. I am not all that sure that the US family will come out ahead. You also have to keep in mind that most Scandinavians take a certain minimum standard of living for granted for all. The lack of health coverage and the extensive and severe poverty in the US, for example, would not be acceptable to most Scandis.
There is no penalty for the single earner, there is a favorable circumstance for the second earner, according to the passages quoted.
Taking leave is not the same as leaving the workforce. People stay home with their small children because they can without losing income (maternity and paternity leave is paid at almost full salary).
Once again, I based the comment that most women in Europe (I thought it was only for Scandinavia, but it is actually pan-EU apparently) want to work on a POLL, which is referenced in that article. So, I am not basing it on the fact that they DO work. I am basing it on what they express as their preference when asked. Now the reasons why they express this preference are probably manifold, but that is a different discussion.
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Your child would be at a severe disadvantage in our particular school district. They hit the ground running in full-day K, and the child who has not been to some preschool would be at a real disadvantage.
Credit is not bad. It is good because it is a convenience. Credit has been around since man was born! Unfortunately, the banking lobbies are so powerful that in the recent past, our elected officials have allowed the banks to ignore usury laws. Never before in the history of the US has anyone been able to increase the price of goods AFTER they've been sold.
There's a recent Frontline episode about this on PBS. Check it out. The unsuspecting and unprepared do not stand a chance against the banks.
"...but that might not even "work" in the US where we do have many intense jobs requiring much longer hours and jobs that can't wait 1 or 2 years for the trained employee to return from paid maternity leave."
You would be surprised what can work. There are industries in which it is much harder than in others, so people adjust as needed. Still, tallies show that the US insistence on long hours does not necessarily translate into higher productivity. Injecting some humanity into the equation need not cramp business.
PS: I assume that you do know that all EU countries are democracies.
As far as I know your government has seriously limited stemcell research. Is that how you like to see your government dealing with it?
Edited 11/30/2006 7:36 am ET by sild
You think
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Are these mothers just digging their nails into their rocking chairs and counting down the 365 days (or "worse" 730 days) until they can return to work where they can finally jump for joy and shout Hooray! I'm free. Or do these women want to be home with their children during that 1 or 2 year paid maternity leave? If they truly preferred to work, they would be at work.
Because Target and Nordstrom's are the only two stores in the universe.
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LOL. So you're finally on such an unrelated tangent that I'm going to accept that you agree with me on the only point we've been debating with any relevance: you cannot look at the #s of working mothers in Scandanavia and come to your conclusion about women prefering to woh.
Thanks!
Gotta go for the day.
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