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> nobody has to work to make ends meet

Which means that other people who do go to work support those who sit around and do nothing. As someone who works, I have no desire to support people who don't work because they don't have to.



Why would you assume that people who don't have full time work sit around and do nothing?

I'm the breadwinner for someone who stays at home and she's immensely valuable. A fact I'm quite aware of as she just left for a few weeks on a trip and now I'm working and doing what she does. She does all the house chores, picks up medications/runs errands, is trying to get a business of her own off the ground (is making ~500/mo with potential to scale if she's allowed time to actually do it), etc. She also contributes a lot to making sure our household is embedded in our community, which in turn enables us to both more efficiently help others (when we can) and to receive help when we need it without relying more on the government/taxpayers. She does the work required to do things like help our parents when needed (we're siblings), which would otherwise be paid caregiving paid by, you guessed it, the taxpayers! She also makes me a way better worker because I'm the one person on my team who actually can focus on work all day and doesn't have to frequently step out for life things.

And this is without children in the home.

Not to mention students, people with disabilities (some of whom may end up being a greater boon to society if they're allowed to reskill or be pickier about jobs rather than being forced to work themselves to the bone until they can contribute nothing + their medical needs end up being worse than they would have been if they were accommodated in the beginning), etc.

The idea that the only way people can contribute to society is via paid employment is a sign of a lack of creativity.


Please notice that you are responding to a position the GP did not take. He said

> people can choose whether they work or stay home raising a family, and nobody _has_ to work to make ends meet.

Parents who leave paid employment to raise children are far from "sit[ing] around and do[ing] nothing". If we value future conditions (even restricting that calculation only to economic productivity, though I'd argue other considerations also matter) then investing resources in raising and educating children is rational, even for those of us who don't have them ourselves.


In the US we have a Child Tax Credit which is available to almost all parents regardless of employment status. This is a direct credit, not just an income tax deduction. So as a society we are investing resources in raising children, although I suppose you could argue that the amount ought to be higher.

https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/938


It's $1000. I would not expect that to effect even the most-impoverished family's life choices.


How come socialist countries have the lowest birth rates in the history of the world? Even Netherlands. Words are only words, reality is reality.


For the same reason that desperately impoverished nations with the harshest living conditions and highest child mortality have the highest birth rates in the world.


And what is that reason?




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