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I've never had an employer or customer put something inside me for even a moment, let alone nine months.
I wouldn't do my current job for free. But I also enjoy talking about it - and find no shame it doing so - with my friends, family, and other acquaintances. Sometimes I have stressful days, but I don't end every day or week thinking, "A what a fucking emotional toll I had to pay!" In fact, I'm quite excited about my job because it lets me do all these other cool things with friends and families - and I feel like I really am creating some tangible value on a day to day basis.
And this matters why? What qualitative difference does it make? Has your employer ever needed you to put in earphones? Or go through a health checkup?
If you don't like the terms and conditions, don't sign the contract.
Jobs vary, from the fulfilling to drudgery, from the stressful, to the relaxed. Mine certainly has its ups and downs, and it isn't all things I currently do for free online if someone were to politely ask. Getting pregnant and making $50k in 9 months strikes me as a much better deal than having to break your back laboring for the same sum, or have it represent life-time earnings, as would be the case in the Third World for many surrogates.
Someone having to work at McDonald's after their PhD in Underwater Basket Weaving failed to net them the jobs they dreamed of is obviously unhappy about it, and probably embarrassed to disclose it to friends and family. There are many low prestige jobs out there. Some of them even pay a premium to account for the fact it's not most people's first choice.
There is a categorical difference between an employer requesting you put in ear phones or get a health check up (both of which you can refuse) and agreeing upon incubating a human inside of you for nine months in order to receive payment. If you're saying "No, it's just a difference in degree" then we have an intractable disagreement.
Regarding job quality and relative value, my response was when you asserted "we all pay an emotional toll" - which I think is incorrect. Some people do, absolutely. All of us do not.
I can't quite follow your thread on McDonalds PhDs etc. It seems to me your argument is roughly "find the best mix of compensation / perceived labor / emotional stress" and go from there. Valid enough, but I'd argue there are jobs that may in fact be pay well, be low in labor requirements, and have limited emotional stress that you shouldn't take - drug dealer, pornstar etc. (although, I'd also argue that those "jobs" specifically have high emotional stress - those that do not feel emotional stress in those "jobs" are perhaps demonstrating dissociative or anti-social mental states)
I mean, outside of obvious coercion and indentured servitude, the surrogates can say no. I'm perfectly fine with coercion being illegal, I just don't think the usual argument that the difference in wealthy is necessarily coercive is worth a damn. I don't have a womb, but for the typical sum quoted, I would say I'd at least be interested.
Let's say you have a physically active job, and you've got clapped out knees. When you protest at being assigned field work, I see no reason why the employer can't ask you to get surgery to fix your knees, if a desk job is not a mutually acceptable option. You have the right to refuse, and find another job. That is, technically, something being put inside you for the purposes of work. At any rate, I don't see the qualitative difference between something in or outside you, as long as you agree to it.
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