A "Cynical" Debate: Should Housewives Be Paid For Their Work?

The Cynic

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    Hi, I'm The Cynic and, although I ended up going down a more science-oriented career path, I've always been a lover of some rich debate. To compensate for the lack of a "serious debate" section on Pokecommunity I have created, and will be creating, a number of discussions I call "Cynical Debates". These Debates are designed for serious topics to be discussed and in detail. I will act as chairperson in these debates and make contributions to the discussion once it has got off the ground. Lets begin:

    "Cynical" Debate #1
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    Topic: Should family members (eg. housewives) receive a wage for the work they do in the home?
     
    And househusbands? Yeah, raising kids isn't easy (so they say) and some people could probably do with help and guidance, but who would pay for it? Only governments have that kind of money. If they did it then there would need to standards, a list of basic necessities, things a parent had to do and things there were forbidden to do. What if the parent wanted to teach a child something controversial or relied on faith healing? I know I wouldn't want tax money being spent to help a parent teach their children their own narrow views of religion, sexuality and other topics. I'm not against money being used to help people, but it should be in the form of food, transportation, medicine and other quantifiable things that everyone (or almost nearly everyone) agrees are good.

    My biased opinion (which I don't expect to convince anyone with) is that having kids is a choice and you shouldn't expect help with raising them just because you were selfish.
     
    I don't think it's necessary to add wages and salaries to marriage. People should support each other in that situation (the whole point of marriage is a union anyway), and a relationship is personal, not professional. There's already welfare for struggling families already; if you want to expand such programs, then it should cover this issue without much problem aside from added taxes.
     
    Since when do housewives have to get paid for their work? They only benefit the baby and the husband and she already sucks out too much money from the husband for those shoes at half price.
     
    I'd like to think of it as charity work. They most likely signed up for this in the first place, knowing the results.
     
    If you have doing your chores then yeah.
     
    Galatea said:
    And househusbands? Yeah, raising kids isn't easy (so they say) and some people could probably do with help and guidance, but who would pay for it? Only governments have that kind of money. If they did it then there would need to standards, a list of basic necessities, things a parent had to do and things there were forbidden to do. What if the parent wanted to teach a child something controversial or relied on faith healing? I know I wouldn't want tax money being spent to help a parent teach their children their own narrow views of religion, sexuality and other topics. I'm not against money being used to help people, but it should be in the form of food, transportation, medicine and other quantifiable things that everyone (or almost nearly everyone) agrees are good.

    My biased opinion (which I don't expect to convince anyone with) is that having kids is a choice and you shouldn't expect help with raising them just because you were selfish.
    Click to expand...
    Alternatively, if the government was paying stay at home parents for their role, then they would have a say in what goes on in the household, including what is taught. I'd rather not have their intervention and be able teach what I want to my kids (including about my religion of choice :3).

    Children aren't informed enough to make choices. They need the guidance of adults to help so that when they're older, they can make the correct choice.
     
    I'm not sure why so many of you think it's such an absurd idea, iirc we've already got something similar here.

    It was just an advert I overheard on the radio, but I'm pretty sure this is what they were on about.
    They spoke about how they realise that once you have children you don't stop working, and then went on about some sort of way you could receive payment.
    It was only on Spotify and they have a pretty limited range of adverts, so it it pops up again I'll get more info on it.

    Of course if the question was purely asking whether they should be paid for general housekeeping then I don't really see how an argument can be made;
    Who else but them would care in the slightest about their towels being neatly folded? 0_o
     
    btw I was very tempted to make a woman joke here but im proud to say I controlled my self and didnt haha=)
     
    AdvancedK47 said:
    Since when do housewives have to get paid for their work? They only benefit the baby and the husband and she already sucks out too much money from the husband for those shoes at half price.
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    Not all housewives are like that. >.> From watching the news, many housewives are actually better at budgeting their family's finances better than their husbands by spending their husband's work money wisely and able to find great deals when they buy stuff, even groceries. In fact, a lot of them are in charge of the finances.

    classic XpkmnX said:
    btw I was very tempted to make a woman joke here but im proud to say I controlled my self and didnt haha=)
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    ...What joke would that be? :< You don't have to mention that so that you won't get questioned like now. :/

    Anyways, I agree with Miniryu here. As much as I support housewives and their hard work on keeping the household together (my mom is a housewive), I don't think there needs to be pay here. That then would make it seem more professional, and to me marriage and family shouldn't really be that way.
     
    Amachi said:
    Alternatively, if the government was paying stay at home parents for their role, then they would have a say in what goes on in the household, including what is taught. I'd rather not have their intervention and be able teach what I want to my kids (including about my religion of choice :3).

    Children aren't informed enough to make choices. They need the guidance of adults to help so that when they're older, they can make the correct choice.
    Click to expand...
    Amachi makes a good point. The only place such a payment could come from is taxes, and that means that the government and the populous has a say in how to raise children, and that's something I certainly don't want if I ever have children. Laws already set ridiculous limits on parental discretion and take away valuable tools parents have in raising their children. I can't imagine that more government control over how people raise their children would be a good thing, except perhaps in very extreme circumstances.
     
    Marriage isn't some kind of business transaction.


    If 1 person in the marriage is working, and the other takes care of the house, the money is still both of theirs. There shouldn't be any ownership in a marriage.



    edit: The idea of governments paying for housework is ridiculous. How are we entitled to other people's tax money just for existing? The government doesn't just pull money out of thin air.
    And since all households require housework, the money would be taken out of their wage as a tax, then paid back to them for housework. So it doesn't help anybody outside those who would want to abuse the system.
     
    Being a housewife, or husband for that matter, isn't some kind of career path. The person doing it has too, either because their partner works long hours or they just want to spend more time with their kids. Imagine the crisis if the goverment paid them, tidying your home and looking after your children gives nothing to the society apart from bringing up future workers (which doesn't count a bit in the grander scale of things). Of course, it would be fine if the working partner paid them a "wage" if they didn't mind that. But really, they should be sharing money anyway so that would be un necessary.
     
    No I don't. Both my parents have jobs and they took care of me fine. It's just stupid that they don't actually have to do much and they'd get paid for it.

    If you dont want to get a job you shouldn't get payed like you're doing one. Housewife isn't a hard job, really. Take care of some kids, clean a little, cook some dinner. Leech money of husband who has a full time job because you're too lazy to get off your ass and do something.

    But hey. That's just my opinion.

    *Waits for the rush of femenists*
     
    Absolutely. The logistics of which I don't feel like thinking through at the moment. But, for the purposes of this thread, I'm going to go with a hypothetical magic sack of money rather than say a corporation or the government.

    It's getting increasingly difficult to have a family on a single salary unfortunately. I'm a firm believer that there should be one parent at home with the kids. Regardless of gender. So, I welcome anything that would make that easier.
     
    Anxiety. said:
    If you dont want to get a job you shouldn't get payed like you're doing one. Housewife isn't a hard job, really. Take care of some kids, clean a little, cook some dinner. Leech money of husband who has a full time job because you're too lazy to get off your ass and do something.
    Click to expand...
    While I agree that housewives shouldn't be payed, I can't agree with how you say "taking care of some kids" is an easy task. Taking care of kids is not an easy task, I don't agree with leaving kids with a childminder or at a daycare center for a very long time whilst both parents are working, the whole point of having kids is that you raise them yourself. Even when children start school, it's difficult to get a job that offers working hours that match the same time as the school hours.

    If 1 person in the marriage is working, and the other takes care of the house, the money is still both of theirs. There shouldn't be any ownership in a marriage.
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    I agree with this.
     
    I think it's a bad idea. There is a lot of good working moms/dads out there. And just rewarding someone for not having a job other then housework is backwards.

    I have nothing wrong with housewives. I just don't think someone should be rewarded for just doing housework.

    Also the husband/wife (which ever one is working) should share his money with his wife anyway. Nobody should be owned in marriage.

    So I don't agree with the government paying people to be housewives. But, I do think the husband/wife should share his/her money.
     
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