Men and Women equal? No, never.

[The Grand Nudger]

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.

I thought that those words pretty much summed up what you had a problem with. I'm sorry if I made it seem like there was any other reason, or failed to communicate something there? I don;t think businesses should have to pay employees to have children either, and here they don't. You won't get paid by either program for taking time off to care for your child, all that FMLA affords there is assurance that if some medical emergency arises that means you have to leave work to care for your kid - they can't terminate you on those grounds. Disability might apply, but that would depend on whether or not the child qualified. EIC, public healthcare, subsidized daycare, these are all programs to enhance the wellbeing of children, not to pay their parents for having them, or taking care of them.

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.

Why thank you, I'll continue to supply the labor you'll need to repave them. Perhaps my children will do away with the need for them. Assuming that some medical condition doesn't prevent us from being able to earn enough money to properly take care of them - at which point you'll end up paying more - as they end up wards of the state or in prisons. Enjoy.

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

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

Read a few pages back, where I mentioned that any additional state laws are the states own business, and hopefully we wouldn't be arguing with a states rights to pass a law. There is no federal requirement, there is nothing that says -if in the US, you must pay for maternity leave- by the only people who are authorized to make such a statement.

Current United States maternity leave policy is directed by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) which includes a provision mandating 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for mothers of newborn or newly adopted children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternity_l...ted_States

You stopped digging when you thought you found what you hoped to find Shell, sorry. That wiki you linked...directed to this - in the stats box.....That's all that's mandated by the US, that's the sum total of federal involvement in the issue. End of. Paid medical leave - under which maternity leave can fall, by the by, in those few states that decided to make additions - covers a bit more than -just- maternity leave. But hey, you don;t like it -don;t do business there. Again, when you incorporate in a state - when you operate a business in a state - you are agreeing to follow that states laws - so even here...no one..is being forced...to do...anything. That point cannot possibly be driven home hard enough.

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.

Delivery is a major medical procedure, recovery from which can be classified as a temporary disability. FMLA protects you from being fired - short term disability pays out - wait for it- because you are temporarily disabled.

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.

Neither program has anything to do with paying people to suckle their kids. So.........