Men and Women equal? No, never.

[Shell B]

Is there some other program you had in mind, whereby people are "paid to have kids"? The FMLA and short term disability are the most direct examples of programs that could be construed as such - and short term disability is the only type of paid maternity leave offered federally.

You cherrypicked four words out of all of my posts. I was speaking about businesses paying people to have kids, which was in direct response to the OP. How you got that far off, I have no idea. Of course, I did add that I do not think the government should pay people to take time off to care for their kids. The only reason why we have to is because parents do not plan for kids very well. And, yes, we have to. WIC, public health care, government subsidized daycare, etc.

In the case of someone using both FMLA and short term disability the person making a "withdrawal" if you will, is likely to be paying more into the system then short term dis is going to pay out to them (so no, you aren't paying for my wife's maternity leave..lol, she is - though I'm sure that there's somebody somewhere who you can put that one on). The FMLA side of it is more legal protection.

By making that "withdrawal," said person pays less into other programs and everyone else makes up the difference. Want to have kids you can't afford to have? Here, let me pay to pave the roads for ya, then.

Not in the US.

(CA: 6 weeks 55%, District of Columbia: Requires employers to provide workers with paid days of absence,[29] NJ: 6 weeks 66%, PR: 8 weeks 100%, HI: 58%, NY: 50%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave#America

Yeah, cause Kentucky or wherever you are is "the US."

(IIRC btw, we do actually pay out for drug addicts who - as a consequence of their drug addictions, end up disabled- and of course we have plenty of federally and state funded rehab this and thats -and yes, I'm okay with that)

Yes, paying for rehab. Yes, paying for disability. Do we pay for them to take time off to indulge a decision they could not afford to make? Not in the same sense.

No matter how you slice it, if you are taking money from somewhere else to get time off to suckle your kid, you are getting paid to have that kid in some way or another. Do I blame people for taking up the offer? Nope. Do I imagine I would be more responsible? Yep, and I have been thusfar. Mind you, people in my family have had kids before they could afford to and I love those kids to death. Love their parents too. That doesn't mean I do not think we breed a world standard that it is okay to have as many kids as you fucking want because someone will pay for them and for you to take more time off work than is really necessary. Overpopulation? Yep. Making having kids easier than it would be naturally? Yep. Kind of a contradiction in practice.