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Europe has figured out how to fund this. We certainly can.
Maternity Leave needs to be paid. I'll give u an example: i make more than my husband. I am the principal earner. We need both of our incomes in order to live here. We simply cant afford for me to be out of work for 3 mos without pay. We might as well just not have kids at all. We want kids but the reality is that w/o paid maternity leave we just cant afford it. My husband makes terrible $$.
Europe funds this with a very severe taxation policy.
And you are quite correct that paid maternity leave is essentially unheard of here in the US.
What VAT is imposed to pay for this? As a small business owner, I would be paying another employee to fill in for the employee on paternity leave.
80% salary almost sounds like an unemployment/disability insurance policy. I wish the article elaborated more on the funding/cost to employer and employer as opposed to just waving this benefit around.
What VAT is imposed to pay for this? As a small business owner, I would be paying another employee to fill in for the employee on paternity leave.
80% salary almost sounds like an unemployment/disability insurance policy. I wish the article elaborated more on the funding/cost to employer and employer as opposed to just waving this benefit around.
Sorry to go OT.
Im not 100% sure but I believe most of the burden is on the taxpayers not the business (also its not full pay its 65%). The reason Germany has such a big program is because their birth rate is plummeting and it is to entice people to have more kids.
Once the Democrats get a permanent majority though, im sure we will see all sorts of European-Style entitlement programs here, maternity leave included. And the burden will be on us.
While Europe and Israel are not the same type of govt ours is, I would still consider them to be "free" countries. Norway gives like a year paid leave or something and Norway was ranked with the best quality of life. I dont know if that has a direct correlation to this but they are doing something right.
My friend married a Swedish girl and instead of waiting out his paperwork, crossed the border illegally. Many of us were angry at him. It turns out he had to lay low for the 60 days he could have been living/working in the US. No one in Sweden was going to be sympathetic to him. Once his paperwork cleared, he was able to emerge from hiding. He has to take government mandated Swedish lessons as part of becoming a Swedish citizen. He was enrolled in a Swedish government work program in order to work in his profession. As he married a Swede, they must be married 3 years and he has to live in Sweden for 5 before he can be naturalized.
He has come to realize that the high COL in Sweden (high progressive income tax rate and VAT on purchases) take a big bite out of his wallet. Many people in Sweden (like a lot of Europe) live in modest homes -- no Mcmansions --helping their kroner go further. He and his wife are no exception.
They're free to pay excessive taxes to fund government programs like extensive maternity or paternity leave. How much more do you wish to pay in taxes and increased product costs in order to get a 12-18 months off with baby? Here's a tidbit: you'll wind up paying more over your lifetime than you were paid for that time off!
Unlike the masses coming across our border illegally with no paperwork initiated and expecting to get things handed to them, one of the demands upon immigrants to Sweden is integration -- such as learning the language and working on the books to pay income tax like my friend is doing. Being caught entering illegally will get you thrown out of the country.
Maybe we should be more like one of these 'free countries' like Sweden, which enforces its immigration laws.
Im not 100% sure but I believe most of the burden is on the taxpayers not the business (also its not full pay its 65%). The reason Germany has such a big program is because their birth rate is plummeting and it is to entice people to have more kids.
Once the Democrats get a permanent majority though, im sure we will see all sorts of European-Style entitlement programs here, maternity leave included. And the burden will be on us.
This depends on the country. My previous post about Sweden includes a link to a piece about Sweden's maternity/paternity leave. It indicates that employers are paying 25% of an employees salary which covers some things (like our SS tax & Medicare) in addition to widows benefits and baby leave.
Progressive income tax and VAT fund the balance of government needs.
At the end it mentions a birthrate of 2.1% is needed, along with low unemployment, to keep funding as is. No mention as to what happens if unemployment increases.
My friend married a Swedish girl and instead of waiting out his paperwork, crossed the border illegally. Many of us were angry at him. It turns out he had to lay low for the 60 days he could have been living/working in the US. No one in Sweden was going to be sympathetic to him. Once his paperwork cleared, he was able to emerge from hiding. He has to take government mandated Swedish lessons as part of becoming a Swedish citizen. He was enrolled in a Swedish government work program in order to work in his profession. As he married a Swede, they must be married 3 years and he has to live in Sweden for 5 before he can be naturalized.
He has come to realize that the high COL in Sweden (high progressive income tax rate and VAT on purchases) take a big bite out of his wallet. Many people in Sweden (like a lot of Europe) live in modest homes -- no Mcmansions --helping their kroner go further. He and his wife are no exception.
They're free to pay excessive taxes to fund government programs like extensive maternity or paternity leave. How much more do you wish to pay in taxes and increased product costs in order to get a 12-18 months off with baby? Here's a tidbit: you'll wind up paying more over your lifetime than you were paid for that time off!
Unlike the masses coming across our border illegally with no paperwork initiated and expecting to get things handed to them, one of the demands upon immigrants to Sweden is integration -- such as learning the language and working on the books to pay income tax like my friend is doing. Being caught entering illegally will get you thrown out of the country.
Maybe we should be more like one of these 'free countries' like Sweden, which enforces its immigration laws.
Good info above, but you are completely wrong on Sweden and immigration. They are in a self-imposed immigration mess just like we are. For the past decade they have been taking in 3rd world Middle Easterners and Central Asians that refuse to integrate into Swedish society.
Google "malmo immigration"
The city now has areas that are pretty much unofficially run by sharia law (and is dealing with a crime epidemic).
Norway and many other European countries have followed a similar path, resulting a big backlash against immigration similar to the debates we have in the US. Finland is one of the few that still have very strict immigration policies to this day.
Yeah in all the other socialistic European countries that provide paid maternity leave, you do realize that their income tax rates are double or triple what we pay in the US. In countries like Sweden and Norway, the income tax percentage is near 70%. So, if you'd rather pay 70% of your earnings to the government in order to get a few months off when you have a kid, be my guest and move the Scandinavia. I'd rather keep what little money we can make and take out a Disability policy like Aflac if we decide to have kids.
Good info above, but you are completely wrong on Sweden and immigration. They are in a self-imposed immigration mess just like we are. For the past decade they have been taking in 3rd world Middle Easterners and Central Asians that refuse to integrate into Swedish society.
Google "malmo immigration"
The city now has areas that are pretty much unofficially run by sharia law (and is dealing with a crime epidemic).
Norway and many other European countries have followed a similar path, resulting a big backlash against immigration similar to the debates we have in the US. Finland is one of the few that still have very strict immigration policies to this day.
Thank you for the links! I have to save the video for later, but intend to watch it.
I'm only relaying what my Nordic-looking friend who immigrated to Sweden wrote, without giving you any irrelevant details from his emails. Perhaps Sweden has a double-standard where immigration is concerned? Or perhaps it is because he is going through the entire process legally, as a white spouse, and not as someone with refugee status as indicated in the article about strife in the city of Malmo?
From the NYT article:
Quote:
Sweden’s liberal policies have become costly. In the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Sweden, which had more manufacturing jobs than citizens to fill them, invited immigrants in. Most came from other European countries. They worked and paid taxes. Those were good years for Malmo, which had shipyards and a textile industry.
When those jobs disappeared, Sweden stopped the flow of immigrant labor, but not the flow of refugees, many of whom clustered in Malmo and other former industrial centers.
This looks like the fundamental difference between my friend's experience is that he is going through the process as a much needed taxpayer to help support the social programs; he was not a refugee.
It appears that humanitarian-based immigration has caused much of the problems that Sweden faces, including a huge welfare state. One thing I noted is that unless a parent is a Swedish citizen, their children will be considered foreign. The graph indicates that 20% of the population of Sweden is foreign. I wonder, if the US were to do the same, how much of our population would be foreign born?
US citizens should pay attention to the issues this is causing European countries and demand an end to the open borders.
Thank you for the links! I have to save the video for later, but intend to watch it.
I'm only relaying what my Nordic-looking friend who immigrated to Sweden wrote, without giving you any irrelevant details from his emails. Perhaps Sweden has a double-standard where immigration is concerned? Or perhaps it is because he is going through the entire process legally, as a white spouse, and not as someone with refugee status as indicated in the article about strife in the city of Malmo?
From the NYT article:
This looks like the fundamental difference between my friend's experience is that he is going through the process as a much needed taxpayer to help support the social programs; he was not a refugee.
It appears that humanitarian-based immigration has caused much of the problems that Sweden faces, including a huge welfare state. One thing I noted is that unless a parent is a Swedish citizen, their children will be considered foreign. The graph indicates that 20% of the population of Sweden is foreign. I wonder, if the US were to do the same, how much of our population would be foreign born?
US citizens should pay attention to the issues this is causing European countries and demand an end to the open borders.
Oh I have no doubt your friend went through a strict immigration process and we have a similar double standard (ask any European haw difficult it has become to legally immigrate to the us). The immigrants In Sweden pretty much are just given a Perminent resident card via refugee status, they aren't eligible for Swedish citizenship but their future children will be. And they are almost all below the poverty line and funded by the Swedish welfare state.
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