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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   27720 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024

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Almost all of them? Even in the heavily male dominated industries you mention women are somewhere between 10 and 30% of all workers. Do you think if 36% of all farmers disappeared no one would notice? What about 10% of all construction workers? Or hell, how about healthcare. Would no one notice if 88% of all nurses disappeared overnight? What about 38% of all physicians?

ALMOST making my point here.

Who would notice if nurses and physicians disappeared? People with doctor's appointments, or the elderly and infirm who depend on nursing care.

Most people wouldn't notice right away because most aren't going to see a nurse or doctor very often.

Compare that to say, if your local power plant shut down because all the staff left. Who would notice? Literally every person whose electricity just switched off.

In the case of physicians, the economic impact wouldn't be immediate because economic activity could still continue even as the healthcare system suffered from a huge backlog. We kinda 'proved' this during Covid. Work continues even if the hospitals are overwhelmed.

In the case of energy production, or internet infrastructure, tons of economic activity would INSTANTLY cease because those inputs are NECESSARY to said activity. So we'd "notice" immediately.

10% of construction workers would indeed be a hit, but with some reshuffling construction would continue.

Also, it is of course likely that just because they make up some significant portion of the workforce, it does NOT imply they're actually responsible for the same share of actual productivity.

If the female 36% of all farmers are only producing 10% of the food, the actual felt impact is less severe than the first number would imply.

And that's a good distillation of my point. Its likely that 80% of economic productivity is the result of the efforts of 20% of the people. And I'd bet my left testicle that the most productive members of the economy are mostly male.

So if females quit working and we lost 50% of the workforce, I would guess we'd lose closer to 10% of economic productivity. Which is to say... we'd survive.

And if females quit working and we lost 50% of the workforce but actually devoted themselves to raising kids such that all childcare costs were internalized, the actual hit would probably be negligible.

If she quits working outside the home to raise a child very little of that value comes back to her in a form that can be spent to sustain herself. If the state wants more women to choose raising children then more of the value that action produces needs to come to them in a form they can use to sustain themselves.

I think to make this proposal make sense, it would be simpler to say that the male whose sperm produced the child she's caring for is on the hook to pay her for her work caring for the child. Rather than the government taking the male's money via taxes and distributing it to women as some kind of subsidy just give her a direct claim to the guy's money as compensation.

I think it is, more specifically, technological development. It reduces the amount of labor needed to perform household tasks, freeing that labor up for other uses, and increases economic productivity at various tasks outside the home. Technological development simultaneously increases the benefits and reduces the opportunity cost of working outside the home.

The huge glaring irony, though, is that almost any female-centric industry can be to some extent 'replaced' by technology (I will grant that this is NOT the case for Nursing)... except bearing and raising kids.

Like, any job that a female can do, a male with the right tools, automation, and basic support can presumably also do. EXCEPT THE PRECISE JOB THAT FEMALES EVOLVED OVER MILLENNIA TO PERFORM, which men still struggle with despite better tech. In the case of bearing children, men are literally incapable of doing it.

So it seems like steps toward a solution require us to 'un-taboo' the idea that females bearing children is in fact a good social priority and women should be encouraged to become mothers.

I think to make this proposal make sense, it would be simpler to say that the male whose sperm produced the child she's caring for is on the hook to pay her for her work caring for the child. Rather than the government taking the male's money via taxes and distributing it to women as some kind of subsidy just give her a direct claim to the guy's money as compensation.

Surely the play is to give her a portion of her offspring's income, no?

Maybe? Seems likely to produce some real disincentives.

Like what? In essence this already happens in a round about way through social security.

Worst case, if we accept that males are likely to make more money over their lifetime than females, there's a bias towards having male children.

It certainly places the children in a situation where they may decide to earn less salary since some portion of it is being taken away from them with no promise of return.

Worst case, if we accept that males are likely to make more money over their lifetime than females, there's a bias towards having male children.

Could have some of the daughter's share of income from her offspring flow to her mother. Should be some mathematical way to make this work out.

It certainly places the children in a situation where they may decide to earn less salary since some portion of it is being taken away from them with no promise of return.

If this were the case it'd already apply to social security. And, frankly, I would be surprised if a large number of men would be that resentful of a formalized way to discharge their financial obligations to their parents. I'm reminded of Scott on how pledging to give 10% actually resolved a lot of his anxiety of whether he's doing enough.

Could have some of the daughter's share of income from her offspring flow to her mother. Should be some mathematical way to make this work out.

Interesting to have wealth flowing in 'reverse' down the Matrilineal line.

And, frankly, I would be surprised if a large number of men would be that resentful of a formalized way to discharge their financial obligations to their parents.

Well, we can imagine some that are upset that their parents were abusive or neglectful growing up yet get to share in their wealth. Perhaps there would need to be a process for cutting off parents for cause.

That'd need to be some strong cause, or maybe you could at request give 1.1x the rate to the general tax fund so you'd need to really want to spite them.

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