tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6019427431927856068.post2944275899958417933..comments2023-03-25T04:59:37.637-04:00Comments on One Drunk Redneck: The imaginary warOne Drunk Redneckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15438716968005040328noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6019427431927856068.post-90451424057427654182014-02-04T12:58:52.997-05:002014-02-04T12:58:52.997-05:00Thank you for your compliment and great insight in...Thank you for your compliment and great insight into the difficulties families in your country face, difficulties not very much different than our own. Unfortunately, we don't have answers to the problem of the disappearing middle class and the days when one parent's income was sufficient to raise the children and support the wife long after the children have grown and left home. We do know, however, that this Imaginary War of stay-at-home-Moms vs working Moms does more harm than good in the long run. One Drunk Redneckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15438716968005040328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6019427431927856068.post-79527584168673613482014-02-04T08:03:36.921-05:002014-02-04T08:03:36.921-05:00This is a great piece. I too, was part of a double...This is a great piece. I too, was part of a double income family until I got laid off. My son was in a home-based daycare where he actually had many advantages. And I live in a country a little north of you which gives a) a 12 month paid leave in which benefits must continue to be awarded as if the employee was still at work and b) splits the leave into a 4 month maternity (for before pregnancy and/or recovery) and then 9 months parental leave, which can be taken by either the mother or father. <br /><br />So we've got some social benefits here, and yet, even with the double income, the middle class is seeing slide. I was unlucky; I didn't have a retired parent around to help watch the kid, So while I was working, I was paying full on for daycare. I was making a fairly good salary, but I was having to farm out about 40% of my wages on daycare alone. And I know there are many people way below me on the pay scale.<br /><br />If it were only so simple as work or not work to guarantee success. Unfortunately, both of our countries are on a socioeconomic race to the bottom as jobs increasingly get exported to nations that employ child labour and pay pennies on the dollar, so that we can afford buy more crap we don't need. Or they privatize them and "reboot" the workforce so they can start over and pay less. Except that it's a vicious circle, and now it's not just people who have been out of the workforce a few years who are ending up as Wal-Mart greeters, it's also Dave, whose manufacturing job in the automotive industry was exported to Mexico; and Mary, the teacher who gets paid only $15,000 for teaching future generations; and Joe, the kid who took an English degree in University and graduated with no prospects and $50,000 worth of student loan debt; and anybody else who suddenly finds that they fall into this limbo where doing anything other than staying at home or working an oddball part-time job when you have the coverage from another parent just... doesn't make any financial sense.<br /><br />It's happening too much. And as you say, people are getting distracted by imaginary ground wars too much to pay attention to the torpedoes speeding towards us... Food Retrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12060943109053840693noreply@blogger.com