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Comment by emperorcezar | Hacker News Reader

There is a lot if hidden privilege that allows you to think for most people it is a choice.

And there's a lot of hidden choice that you are ignoring.

A government mandate requiring companies to provide paid leave forces (i.e. opposite of choice) everyone else to pay for it.

That is called society, and as someone who pays a lot of tax, has owned businesses in the past, and plans to do so again, I fully support it. And I speak out in favor of such ideas and plans, to encourage my fellow citizens to support these as well.

And once you have enough citizens supporting such ideas and plans, you can force the rest.

Well, yes, just like taxes are a thing, and you can't drive on sidewalks or against traffic lights, and we all pay for fire, police, courts, food inspectors, and so on. Turns out the world is full of coercive behavior--if you kill someone, there's generally a consequence, and so on.

Again, that's society.

When the "choice" is to not be able to earn a living, it's not a choice.

And I see no problem with a government mandate for it. Because that provides "choice" for the new parents. Your way usually denies them that choice.

"There is a lot if hidden privilege that allows you to think for most people it is a choice."

It's not hidden at all. I am quite privileged as are all of the people in first world economies of which we speak. You (yes, you) are among the top 1% wealthiest of the worlds population.

I have no idea why the children of my comment assume a very, very false dichotomy of working through your child's childhood or becoming destitute. Now, more than ever, there is a huge swath of available and acceptable behavior between those two extremes.

>Now, more than ever, there is a huge swath of available and acceptable behavior between those two extremes

just to flesh this out further, could you provide some examples of what you mean?

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