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Not all that well in most cases. They have very high youth unemployment, for example, and high unemployment, more generally. Not to mention slower economic growth, which is needed to pay for the expensive welfare state. A few small countries seem to pull it off. Most of the rest are in trouble.
And to top it off, despite all the benefits, Europe STILL has much lower birth rates than America, so the policy isn't even working if the goal is for the population to replace itself.
Child bearing isn't a right and it certainly shouldn't be paid by company dollars in my view. Once upon of time more people would plan/make arrangements themselves to have kids and not rely on others to do so, including gov or companies. Family chipped in to help in certain cases, not private companies or gov. Unfortunately I wasn't part of that generation but it makes much more sense to me. I think it's called personal responsibility, not feeling entitled for others to pick up the tab even though we know they are indeed the center of the universe and everything should bend around them. Quite a foreign concept these days I know.
Just to piggyback on what you're saying here....
These so-called benefits aren't truly done for our benefit. They're done to make people dependent on the government, to maintain power and control over people....to make people think they can't do things for themselves...to get people to look to Big Brother or some other figure outside themselves and their families/local communities as a Savior figure.
It's all about centralizing power and control. The way you do that is to get people to think it's not possible or too hard for them to do things on their own without the help of some institution (corporation, government, etc. IE "Big Brother").
Oh I dunno, perhaps just the satisfaction that one gets from living in a so-called Christian society and considering the welfare of the whole rather than the "what's in it for me"?
Of course you could always regress all the way back to wandering off to the side of the field you're picking cotton in and just squat to dump your kid in the grass like all good conservatives would expect of you.
Kind of funny, that you're calling for childless folks to consider others, and accuse them of being selfish, yet you have no words for the women that choose to have children and expect others to cater to them, and support them.
Isn't it the woman having the child that has the biggest "what's in it for me?" attitude. And no, we don't live in a collective, we live in a country where the individual has rights.
And like a typical liberal, you decide that a childless worker that has a problem with a woman with a child stealing from them, and make the instant leap to "you want women to give birth in a field". Show me where I said anything remotely like that?
Oh I dunno, perhaps just the satisfaction that one gets from living in a so-called Christian society and considering the welfare of the whole rather than the "what's in it for me"?
Of course you could always regress all the way back to wandering off to the side of the field you're picking cotton in and just squat to dump your kid in the grass like all good conservatives would expect of you.
"Satisfaction" doesn't pay the bills. Shouldn't that mother take "satisfaction" in knowing she's had a child?
Kind of funny, that you're calling for childless folks to consider others, and accuse them of being selfish, yet you have no words for the women that choose to have children and expect others to cater to them, and support them.
Isn't it the woman having the child that has the biggest "what's in it for me?" attitude. And no, we don't live in a collective, we live in a country where the individual has rights.
And like a typical liberal, you decide that a childless worker that has a problem with a woman with a child stealing from them, and make the instant leap to "you want women to give birth in a field". Show me where I said anything remotely like that?
I don't know how extensive your study of biology is but you do know that in the majority of circumstances there is a man involved in making a baby as well?
To imply women should bear the entire responsibility for what is a "two person" decision is simplistic and misogynistic regardless of your view on paid leave.
And if companies think there's an urgent need, they can choose to extend this benefit. And decide how they're going to manage the inequity of workers left to carry the ball (yet again) for employees' protracted absences.
A lot of posters are complaining about there not being enough wage increases today.
A company has so many dollars they can use to pay employees, which is a percentage of income. Example a fast food restaurant allows 30% of gross income for labor costs. Different businesses and industry have their own allowable percentage for wages and benefit costs.
If an employer has to pay several months to a couple of years maternity leave for several employees as an example; which employees do they reduce in pay to come up with the money to pay for this benefit?
If they are in a competitive business where they really cannot raise their prices to come up with more income, to offer maternity benefits, other employees are going to have to take a hit and have their income reduced to pay for maternity benefits such as the OP proposes.
How many people that think we should have this benefit for everyone, would be willing to take a 10% to 20% wage cut to make it possible to offer the same maternity benefits as some other country.
Look at the denial in this thread. This is why we'll never have the things they do. We're too worried about that CEO getting his 400x higher wage than the average person. No vision, no care for the very foundation of our society. This is why career women don't have kids but the jobless white trash have many.
Welcome to america- nowhere NEAR being the "Greatest Country in the World" anymore. Greed, guns and "I've got mine-*********" attitude. NO WAY USA!!
[quote=clb10;40921875]Say you want paid leave...here's what you do:
Don't take a job that doesn't offer it.
Problem solved. [/quote
Yeah because in 'murica there's just SO MANY employment options for most people!! Good God people-no wonder 'murica sucks as bad as it does!!!!
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Quite a foreign concept these days I know.
