|
Ubi Est Mea?
Some books can present a perspective that a
reader might not have considered without having read the book. For me, Elinor
Burkett’s The Baby
Boon, falls into that category. Burkett shows how government and corporate
policies favor those with children over those who are childfree. Burkett made
plenty of enemies in writing this book, because of the attention she’s called
to the impact of these policies on the growing number of childfree
individuals and couples. The book is full of examples of laws and corporate
policies that have the effect of taking money from the childfree and giving
it to families with children. Executives who read this book will take a close
look at all human resources policies to ensure that the allocation of
benefits makes all employees feel they have choices and have been treated
fairly.
Here’s an excerpt:
“The issue,
finally, becomes a problem in logic. Or at least in village dynamics, since
the assumption that everyone should bear at least some of the costs of
raising the next generation – whether through tax credits, special employee
benefits, or reduced work schedules – springs from the belief that it takes a
village. Now it’s odd that Republicans are supporting these kinds of proposals
since they cheered Bob Dole longest and loudest at the 1996 Republican
convention when he mocked Hillary by insisting that ‘it takes a family, not a
village.’ But, on this one, as on so many others, the Republicans are not
consistent with their own verbiage.
The notion seems to be that when individual villagers undertake projects that
benefit the entire community, all the members of the village should support
their efforts. Raising children, of course, is seen as the most preeminent of
all possible projects. By that logic, it is my command responsibility, as a
childless woman, to relieve parents of some of the burden of raising kids, no
matter how wealthy they are. I should feel proud to be paying to educate
their children, from birth through university, no matter how able they are to
pay for it by themselves, no matter how scholarly inept their children may
be. I should know that I’m doing the right thing by subsidizing their
lunches, providing them with parks and other safe places to play, funding
research into how to educate them effectively, and underwriting antismoking
campaigns to scare them away from tobacco.
At work, I should understand that the pot of money available to fund employee
benefits cannot be divided up equally, or according to merit or seniority,
because they need a larger share to pay for childcare, summer camp, and
health insurance – no matter how fat their own paychecks. And I should never
complain if I have to work weekend shifts, since no one could possibly have
anything more important to do on a weekend than to spend time with the
children. And I’m not supposed to feel ripped off when my boss asks me to
take over as, say, the city editor of the newspaper for six months while the
regular editor is on maternity leave and then I’m shoved back into reporting
when she comes back to claim her job, because I need to be supportive of
women.
And I’m supposed to do and feel all of these things because the lifestyle
choice of parents – which is what having kids is – happens to make a valuable
contribution to society.
We generally do not presume to reward and punish private decisions based on
the impact on the communal good, or at least history teaches us about the
dangers of doing so. But let’s say that we decide to make an exception in the
case of parents because their work seems so uniquely important. What do we do
if their lifestyle choice of having kids does not make a valuable
contribution to society? Having ten children, for example, can be a detriment
to society. By the logic of the village, overactive parents should not only
have their rights withdrawn, but should be penalized, right? Or, by that same
logic, lousy parents who turn out delinquents instead of good citizens should
be barred from continued reproduction, or at least fined heavily for their
negative impact on the community.”
The Baby
Boon contains extensive endnotes and a bibliography. Most of all, it
presents a perspective that executives may need to consider in creating
policies. You may not like what Burkett has to say, or how she says it, but
this is a point of view that, once heard, is likely to modify your thinking.
Steve Hopkins, December 19, 2001
|
