The author of this article on the New York Times (link) advocates that this issue desperately needs to be addressed by the presidential candidates. She argues that we need to increase the equity for workers, especially those who have the responisiblity of providing and caring for their families all at once. While her claims may raise a good point, do you see this being a deciding factor in the election? Where do you suppose you would find this topic on the presidential agenda for each candidate? What are your personal feelings about the situation?
Monday, October 8, 2012
Changing the Care Economy
Many working Americans bear the burden of taking care of some type of dependent, whether it is children, parents, a spouse, or a relative. However, it is unfortunately often the case that these workers, especially wage earners, cannot afford to have a stay-home parent or hire a caretaker. Therefore, they have to balance their work lives with their home lives, but the problem with this is that many of these workers do not recieve any type of paid family leave or paid sick days.
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I don't think this will be a deciding factor in this election as people currently are more concerned with being able to find any job. It would, however, be interesting to hear what both candidates have to say about this issue. I personally feel that it must be hard for parents who can not take off an hour here of there to take their child to the doctor, let alone take a paid sick day when they themselves are ill. I think it is easy for people to think that in America we are more advanced than all other nations, when in reality many other countries have much better policies regarding sick days, mental health leave, and maternity leave. The average lifespan in the U.S. is shorter than in many other industrialized countries; so maybe we should look at providing citizens with paid sick days.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Beth; this is probably not going to be a deciding factor in this election. However, candidates should address this topic, I think people would be interested in what they have to say, after all, it is important. I have personally heard of situations where people are not able to miss a day of work because of an illness. It is not fair for people to have to work when they are very sick; it is probably less efficient to have them working in such cases than sending them home to rest. I personally think that there is a lot of work still to be done in regards to maternity leave. Women should be given more consideration during this time, especially the last few months.
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