Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

Thread: "Paid leave is a right not a privilege."

This is obviously false. A right you can't enforce is not a right.

But in any case, paid family leave would obv. be good for the American economy & for Americans. Esp. in the post pandemic economy.

The most important medium to long term economic issue in developed countries since the industrial revolution has been labor supply & demand, AKA workforce participation. Everything else rests upon this.

Policies on gender equality & immigration are central to labor policy.

I'm an amateur genealogist and hopefully one day a professional genealogist. Every day as I track the long recorded history of my ancestors I see evidence of immigration choices made for economic reasons. Long before modern NZ was founded in 1840, they were moving within the UK.

Some of my ancestors fled the Northern parts of Ireland during the 1848 potato famine, for factory jobs in Scotland. When conditions in the Glasgow slums became unbearable, they set sail for NZ and other former and current British Empire countries (US, CAN, AU etc.)

One family of 6 young adult siblings spread out across those four countries. Until the last few years I didn't know I had North American cousins.

In the 19th century especially, wherever labor shortage arose, word spread to the places low income workers dreamed of leaving.

This push-pull migration ofc continued into the 20th & 21st centuries. When a destination country developed an over supply of cheap labor, the immigration policy settings would be tightened. British Empire subjects (esp. of Indian descent) were shunted from place to place.

Indian laborers were sent to Fiji from 1879 onward & many stayed. For a time, it was a peaceful & functioning democracy.

Fijian Indians tended to occupy professional & gov roles. Various indigenous Fijian "strongmen" took power in multiple coups d'etat (1987, 2000, & 2006.)

After each coup, Fijian Indians left Fiji, mostly for AU or NZ. It was essentially a "brain drain," which tends to happen anywhere democracy is breaking down. Those who can leave, do. Those who can't must stay behind and take whatever comes.

This is relevant to the US today.

Obviously, I am not claiming that indigenous Fijians are less intelligent & hard working than others, not at all. I am claiming that they tended to support strongmen who took power by force. Many innocents were killed or injured in/after these coups. And Fiji lost skilled labor.

Changes in labor supply and demand impact domestic and foreign policies, everywhere, all the time.

A lot of ethno-nationalism gets exploited by anti-democracy bad actors.

This phenomenon has occurred around the world in our lifetimes. eg the Balkans, Lat Am, MENA etc.

Universal paid family leave is a must-have in a stable, democratic country. Because when workers (incl. men) can take that time when a child is born AND when a family member needs significant health or disability related help, labor supply and demand changes are better managed.

Here's an example. During WWII, American women's factory or other labor was needed, outside the home. Where a woman had childcare responsibilities (perhaps her husband was fighting overseas), family or friends tended to help, enabling her to enter paid work outside the home.

After WWII, women lost their jobs & the independence they came with. Sent "back into the kitchen" they were determined to use the skills developed in the paid workforce. The 3rd wave of feminism took place. (1st was from ~1820, 2nd was ~1890s-1920s.) They won more civil rights.

Policies for paid family leave for women around the time of childbirth spread around the world. Then men became eligible for some of that leave or, sometimes, an equal amount. It was extended to adoptive parents. And then to caregivers of non-infant family members.

In 2001, NZ women employees giving birth became eligible for 12 weeks paid parental leave, provided she had worked for her employer for >12 months. This kind of leave has since been extended to 26 weeks & a much wider set of circumstances.

hcamag.com/nz/specialisat…

NZ's paid family leave developments in recent decades were widely supported. The only significant opposition came from employer organizations, concerned about the increased cost to them, in addition to the taxpayer funded leave payments. They had a point (hear me out):

Regardless of how an employer feels about paid family leave on a personal basis, it does increase their business costs, which can lead to "soft" discrimination in hiring women who are thought to be of childbearing age. I've experienced this, despite being childfree by choice.

It's illegal (here) to discriminate against a female job applicant on the basis that she MIGHT get pregnant while working for you. But some announce their news just after the 12 month point, take leave, then get another job as soon as they can without losing that money.

That's the scenario some have in mind when making hiring decisions, & there is no practical way to change paid family leave policies to reduce it.

It's the same argument made against the concept of the minimum wage. That it costs new entry-level jobs. IMO there's merit in that.

IMO, smart NZ employers actively ignore the feeling that hiring the woman applicant in front of them will end up costing 2-3x what it otherwise would. These employers know that trying to run a business in that way almost always backfires.

The bottom line for the USA is this:

A well designed paid family leave policy is good for a country, and a business, especially if you look beyond the horizon of one election cycle.

This is especially true during and after an emergency on the scale of this pandemic, which is a lot like WWII.

Until the start of 2021, I supported the Republican party in the US. Policies like paid family leave, the child tax credit, and so on were supported by many Rs in Congress, certainly enough to have gotten social spending passed by >60 Senate votes.

But that has changed.

Moderate Senate Rs lost their nerve and joined the mass political suicide pact of the far right fascists that they have allowed to take over their party.

Accordingly, only those items that Ds can arm-twist their two most DINO of DINOs into backing, can be passed.

For now.

US businesses that offer the kind of paid family leave deal that Kiwis enjoy, will be at a competitive advantage in the current and near future labor market.

We have seen what happens when women can't access child care allowing them to return to work after pandemic lockdown.

In the decades since WWII, the US and similar countries built up a female paid workforce that is now absolutely essential to a functioning economy and polity.

We either make generous paid family leave universal, or labor supply crises will force us to loosen immigration policy.

By "we" I mean any country affected by this problem.

Pandemic uncertainty and economic impacts are suppressing our birth rate and it may take years to remedy this. We must incentivize families to have children. And:

We must also do the many other things that will repair the economic damage of the pandemic, from supply chains, to unmet routine health management & screening needs, to having immigration policies that are as fair to all parties as possible.

We need skilled foreign workers.

The last thing the US and others need right now is a government that is based on far right fascist policies and laws.

In closing, here is why I have come to agree that "diversity is our strength."

Fascists disagree that diversity is our strength. You can find out who the fascist influencers are by how they respond to this phrase being expressed after a terrorist attack that either was, or is merely believed by them to be, carried out by a group that is primarily non-white.

These influencers don't want their followers to think too deeply about why diversity might be our strength. They see diversity as the problem.

Allowing people to be diverse (including but not limited to race, religion, or gender) is good for democracy and for an economy.

You can't keep a healthy democracy without enabling the economy to function at least satisfactorily for most people.

Fascists will slide in to brainwash enough people, win power using elections, & keep it using force.

The US is right on the edge of this cliff in 2021-22.

It's not just German Nazis from 1923 to 1945 that match up with what Rs are now doing, it's every totalitarian regime of the past 120 years. There have been at least 100 countries fall to authoritarian rule during that time. Labor market changes are often a part of this.

Racism is only one part of far right fascism. I'm talking about the ideology that is nostalgic for the 1950s nuclear family. Where Dad works and Mom is a happy housewife, putting on her lipstick before Daddy gets home from work. You know what I mean, right?

Current R actions& proposals are part of that ideological framework. Crucially, they assume the US would be just as wealthy & safe as it was in the nice postwar suburbs with the matching houses, full employment, where "men were men & women were women." It's not coming back, boys.

And yes, I know, it was never there for many groups. It's human nature to only remember the good bits of the past. That's why we need EDUCATION about historical events, so that we're less likely to run around telling everyone the CSA didn't start the 1860s war to keep slavery.

The leaders who helped keep American democracy stable and relatively functional until now understood the importance of historically accurate education, and the need to nurture and progressively extend civil rights. Enemies like the USSR then Russia undermine/d US democracy.

I don't say diversity is our strength when a terrorist attack occurs. I'm just reflecting on why the far right fascists at the top of the R party get so damn triggered by it, lol.

Notice that after their own 1/6 terrorism, they weren't exactly denouncing the terrorists.

Diversity is the modern expression of "all men are created equal." Being a follower of the R party in 2021 requires not fully considering what equality means in the US Constitution.

It means the constitutional framework chosen for the US is that all people have equal rights...

Equal rights to vote.
To be treated at least as well as others who have less, or more, melatonin than you. That melatonin level should not determine your rights.
To love the opposite or same sex.
To be young, or old.
Male or female.
Able or disabled.
US born or naturalized.

Unless barriers to employment like the need to give birth, adopt, &/or care for a child are removed, there can be no gender equality, no support for diversity.

Women, & lawful migrants, get invited into the labor market & kicked out, according to the whims of those in power.

Many ways to tackle the problem, & (subject to how it's designed) paid family leave not only enables greater equality; it leads to a more stable & therefore more competitive economy, on which democracy relies.

It's a bipartisan idea. But Rs won't allow bipartisanship in 2021.