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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 14, 2024

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There is nothing good about the number of men not working going from 5% to 14%.

Conversely, I think we'd be much better off with lower female labor participation. Many women who would prefer to stay home with children feel that they need to work, either for money or for social acceptability reasons.

You've got a just so story for why women staying home is good and men staying home is bad, but it's easy to make up the alternate story as well. It might go something like:

We don't need more women staying home and profligately spending the man's paycheck (recall that women spend most of the household's discretionary income). Let them work to understand the value of a dollar. Conversely, many men who would prefer to stay home to raise children feel that they need to work, either for money or social respectability reasons.

I don't expect you'll be convinced by my argument, but you should recognize that yours is also only convincing to those already convinced.