John Oliver on Paid Family Leave.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

From John Oliver's incredible tv show 'Last Week Tonight"...

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This might surprise some of you out there in the world, but the U.S. is one of only two countries in the world that doesn't provide some form of paid maternity leave (the other is Papua New Guinea).

Yes, that means even extremely reactionary governments like Saudi Arabia and Iran provide paid maternity leave.

But America, the 'home of the free', can't be arsed to part with some of its GDP to allow mothers to take time off to properly heal and bond with their children.

[mushroompizza]

Fucking social dem, thinks every problem can be fixed with a small reform like maternity leave.

[Sewer Socialist]

That isn't a "reform"; not having to work after giving birth is something that we really should have around no matter what. It isn't like welfare or whatever, where it's something that replaces a real socialist institution.

[bricolage]

It's good that he spoke about paternity leave as well as maternity leave. I've heard it mentioned (and this might be bullshit so if someone has any evidence either way that would be great) that for people under the age of 30 and with no children the pay gap between men and women doesn't really exist. Now part of this might be because it's when people are older than that that they start to get bigger promotions so pay gaps can be more pronounced, but on the other hand it shows the centrality of family and children to the matter. The fact that one parent (the mother) is expected to stop working because of a) gender roles and b) cos they get paid to do it, does have an affect on this. So I think in talking about time off for mothers we should also be talking about it equally for fathers, not because of some MRA thing but as part of wider move away from how we think about responsibilities for raising children.

But anyway none of this is to detract from how fucked up the US system is. Which is very fucked up... Unsurprisingly.

[willowtooth]

i love john oliver :grin::grin::grin::grin::grin:

[mushroompizza]

Wow for a site that hates social dems Im surprised how much love one gets.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Fucking social dem, thinks every problem can be fixed with a small reform like maternity leave.
So you oppose maternity leave then?

[Atsumari]

Wow for a site that hates social dems Im surprised how much love one gets.
Modern social democrats and liberals support LGBT rights. I guess we should condemn gay rights on the grounds that reformists support it.
Don't be ridiculous.