Why does the United States not have mandated paid maternity

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And why aren't there better options out there, then? Whose policies made working for decent human beings so prohibitive? Abuse of employees is the illegitimate whore-child born after corporations and government share the same bed. Don't confuse corruption and free market capitalism. They are not the same. One of the consequences of federal regulation either favoring or controlling business interests is that good people who actually WANT to do the right thing are prevented from doing so.

He who holds the gold does not make the rules. He who has ideas creates gold out of nothing through the wonderful alchemy of intelligence and productive work. It is the INDIVIDUAL who makes the rules. If you say no parental leave, no work, then you will walk away from the table and seek those who WANT to make that kind of investment. If you are seeking that kind of work but settle for something else you do not want, you are willingly complying with another person's immorality and making yourself their accomplice. Why not start your own business along with a grassroots movement that supports parents by offering leave and then sniping the best and brightest from a competitor who is too greedy or impotent to offer the reward its employees deserve? It is immoral to sleep with any man or woman you don't love. Why should our workplace and career decisions be any different? When a government steps in and inflicts mandated parental leave on all employees, employers can hide behind government policies and trick employees into thinking they're some kind of saint when they are wolves in sheep's clothing. They are not interested in investing in their employees. If there no immediate problems within that company and you work for them, eventually the cracks in their moral foundation will show and employees will begin to feel the effects. I would much rather take a short term job with a company that I KNEW doesn't care about me than have a secure, long-term job with miserable employees and supervisors who pretend absolutely nothing is wrong.


Shifting power away from wealth creators and people with ideas to those who have none, neither wealth nor ideas. Makes perfect sense. Why not let the inmates run the asylum?


Actually...I recently quit one job that paid just over $5,000 and another job that paid, meh, about $10,000. I'm still working two jobs, this time I have a part timer that pays about $9600 and a full time that pays $30,000. I more than doubled my combined salary in the space of a few months and own a little real estate I'm trying to sell. I'm making, with two jobs, nearly $10,000 MORE than what my wife AND I made last year combined. She has not been able to find a job, but has decided to start a stained glass business. She's off to a slow start, but she's already gotten some orders in. All I have left to do is line up some weddings and fundraisers and we could be easily pulling in over $50,000 in the next year, which has NEVER happened for us. Plus, I'm always writing and recording music for relaxation. Our new baby NEVER wakes up at night, my wife no longer has the bad dreams she used to have. I have pretty high standards for my own music, so it's rare I release anything. However, the more I work at it the closer I get to something I like. There IS a market out there for instrumentals and music for relaxation and meditation. I could pick up a nice chunk of change once I get this right and promote it properly.

I'm not suggesting ANYTHING I'm not willing to do myself. The last year has been a wild ride. Now, if my wife were somehow able to get more professional work, we could be pulling $75,000 to $80,000 easily. We are patient people and we're not afraid to work. There's another WP user on here I've OFTEN and FREQUENTLY suggested taking what he can and just running away. I freely and openly acknowledge that I don't know this user well enough to say that he's really in such a position to just up and leave since he says his mother is in control over his, I believe, disability benefits. There may be a good reason related to his safety and well-being as to why his parents have such a tight grip on him. But if such is not the case then he's able to get in his car, same as anyone, pick a direction, and drive until he runs out of gas. And where ever that lands him he can start a new life. I don't mind saying that two weeks before lockdown I hit my lowest point mentally and emotionally since before my father died. I was ready to quit my church gig...as in walk out right before the service started...if I had to endure one more day of abuse. I was getting harassing calls from someone I was supposed to work with, and THE NEXT DAY I got a call saying church services were going to virtual format only. And after the repeated backstabbing I got at my teaching gig, once I got word that school would be virtual for the remainder of the year, I had job applications flying off my MacBook Pro. Obviously I went for what got posted on job boards first, but when there were no jobs left to apply for, I started cold calling.

So yes, I mean every word of it. If you're not feeling it at one workplace, you go somewhere else. I don't expect everyone to have the same luck as I did. It's just as much right place, right time as it is knowing how to apply for jobs and network. But if you make no effort, if you prostitute yourself out to abusive employers you have no love for, who have no love for you, and you have to resort to government force and coercion to make employers do the right thing, eventually you'll find there AREN'T any employers around who have the flexibility to be empathetic, compassionate, or generous. If you insist on making employers miserable by mandated programs they don't want, you can't expect anything better than working in an office full of miserable employees. And the more time you spend with miserable employees, the more you understand just how contagious misery is.

I'm just patriotic enough to hope that my fellow Americans will eventually become aware of the wool that's been pulled over their eyes. There's hope, as I've seen a lot of discontent brewing among my generation (Millennials), and Gen Z.

I really think that America is a beautiful idea, and it'd be great if it actually worked as advertised.

I can only imagine that living in Canada is like living in a nice apartment over a meth lab (the U.S.).

I mean, just pack your bags and move to a fief that offers you better benefits, problem solved.

One of my pals on Reddit described capitalism as "fuedalism with a free floating labor pool."

He wasn't wrong.

The peasants at least had job security lol
We still have fiefs though. They're just called 'company towns' now.
Careful, if the ancaps have their way all land will be privatized and then freedom of movement will go back to being granted only when the nobles decide we deserve it.

Anyone with any skill at recognizing patterns can see exactly where America's current incarnation of capitalism is going.

Unfortunately, I fear we will have to hit rock bottom before collective action is taken. The crap they feed us now is no different than the "divine right of kings." Same sh-t, different day. And the sad part is so many people are extremely eager to lap it up.

All the more reason for it to be required by law.

You find it acceptable for a government control all of its population through coercion and force? You're in a much more favorable position as an employee if you have the security of knowing you have full support of your employer. Not so if your presence is causing your higher ups misery.

Of course, the better jobs will add a company-paid supplement on top of the government mandate. If I were the employer, I'd add in an employment contract that penalizes employees for QUITTING. My purpose would be to make sure employees return after leave and bring them back in towards the end of the contract term to renegotiate the next contract. That way, everyone knows where they stand on bonuses, vacation, family leave, reduction in force, etc. See how easy that is? No need for government interference.

You find it acceptable for a government to be controlled by all of a nation's corporate employers through coercion and force? Pretty sure they call that Fascism..

Some people labor under the misapprehension that government entities are the only ones that can abuse power.

Maybe we should call this "Stockroom Syndrome." Working for the man for $7.25/hr with no healthcare or benefits for so long that you defend him as a good Master that needs no gubmint interference.

Exactly!

Americans would gladly take free stuff.

However, it's not being offered.

For example, even a FOX news poll shows 72% of Americans favor a government plan health care.

I’d rather government and business have as little to do with each other as reasonably possible. There are necessary laws for maintaining order and protecting freedom, and the military is necessary for domestic security. The only involvement I want to see from businesses in government affairs is that they pay their taxes as is their (and other’s) duty.