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Comment by vianneychevalie | Hacker News Reader

I respect your opinion but on a nation-by-nation basis we benefit from having kids (although it could be discussed on a worldwide basis), and we benefit from having well-educated kids that are cared for by their parents.

It is a cost for people who don’t have kids, but a net gain for everyone. A bit like healthcare. People who chose not to smoke benefit from paying taxes used to heal smokers, although a cigarette brings a lot less joy and benefit than kids.

It is my opinion and I’m politically strongly against demographic shrinking.

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Even as someone who hates kids I can see birth rates as huge problem.

No one is deciding though to have kids or not based on the father getting paid time off.

I think it is an easier argument that a knowledge worker who has been up all night taking care of a screaming baby is not effective anyway.

I think we should give fathers paid time off out of pity basically.

Go with a cash handout provided by the government. It is better than paternity leave.

If there was a choice between a cash handout + keep on working vs. paternity leave a significant number of meant would prefer the cash handout.

The basic "this is the deal you get" for men is if they work hard for it & finance the operation then they get a happy & loving family. There are men who'd prefer the time & men who undervalue the time. But there are a lot of men who correctly identify that hard work, maximising their career outcomes and earning as much money as they can is the best way to help their family and this scheme disadvantages them.

If people want unpaid time off I'm all for it. But paid vacation is not justified.

Have you read TFA? This is the issue discussed, that currently men don't really have that fair choice due to different factors.

> maximising their career outcomes and earning as much money as they can is the best way to help their family

Where do you live ?

In country with free education and health care I'd say people definitely prefer maximising family quality time than working hard. When you don't have to worry about getting bankrupt at any point for any reason you start to see things differently. You're not going to be a dad/mom if you drop your kids to a caregiver at 6am and pick them up at 6pm

What's the point of having kids if you don't even take part in their education and just slave away at the office, get a tamagotchi, much cheaper and lower maintenance.

Every cent spent on kids education, well being and providing them healthy family environments is paid 1000 time back to society

Money isn’t worth anything if you don’t use it to buy someone else’s time.

If money could solve all problems, why don’t companies just send all their employees home and let their money do the work?

No they really need the employees to be there, giving their time and attention to the company mission. For that they are willing to spend a lot of money.

Parental time, care and attention is the most valuable thing you could provide a child with in the first few years of their life. Unless the time machine is invented, all the money in the world is no substitute.

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