I can't believe how pro-government interventionist the views are here. Sure the guy's rant was over the top, but isn't this Economics 101? Arn't all the added costs the government puts on hiring workers perfectly reflected in the supply demand curve resolution?

You might not hear about it all that much because it isn't cool to blog about it, but doesn't it make sense that women make less money when, on average, it costs more to hire them?

This isn't about right or wrong, it's math.

> Yes, social responsibility is a bitch for the individual businessman. Boo hoo hoo. - henrikschroder

Social responsibility for a business is to provide goods to the public through voluntary exchange while adhering to the non-aggression principle. Every other benefit should be provided by personal savings, family support, and voluntary donation. If you really want forced help to new mothers or other "disadvantaged" people then provide it by the state where the costs are transparent. The people hurt most by these policies are women who do not want to be mothers.

> But for society as a whole, these things are good. - henrikschroder

I disagree. These interventionist practices increase tension between subcultures. They turn the world into an "us" vs "them" environment, where it would be more optimal to have a "me" and "you" environment.

For example: Affirmative action. Many blacks that get into Harvard and graduate are treated as sub-students by employers like major banks. The reason is that by definition they have, on average, poorer standings when they enter university. A black person that truly deserved to get into Harvard is indistinguishable from one that got there only after the bump from affirmative action. Employers remembering their time at Harvard recall that the black people in there class, while smart, were not of the same caliber as the rest of the class on average.

Furthermore, since affirmative action shifts the whole bell curve to the right, blacks are disproportionally more likely to drop out of university, since they are likely the least academically qualified to be there. This creates further racism as over the years professors tend to note that the blacks they teach tend to drop out.

Another example: Social Security. While the baby boomers were all working they enjoyed some of the lowest rates around. Now forward projections show that the US is unable to meet its SS obligations. Again turning it into "us" vs "them" (Gen X/Y/Z vs Baby Boomers).

> Long maternity (and paternity!) leave is good for the children that will one day grow up and become productive members of society. Having laws around parental leave preventing discrimination means that society doesn't have to deal with paying unemployment welfare for women around 30, and having a hard time re-integrating them into the workforce at 40. Instead this cost is spread out among all the companies in the form of employment laws. - henrikschroder

People make choices. My choice may be to work until I have enough money to where I can earn enough interest passively while I go to Africa and join Engineers without Borders. Or my choice might be to have children. Either way, my productivity, savings, and future goals need to be harmonized for my plans to come to fruition.

Most responsible, productive people find it very easy to return to the workforce. Sometimes they are a step down or two (as in the case of my mother, who was a former research manager at IBM before she had my brother and me) but if their skills haven't eroded, they quickly gain back, and even exceed their position (she's now fairly high up at AT&T managing the internet pipes between Asia and the Americas, as well as VPN services to huge companies like Siemens).

If the problem that right to return to work solves is post child rearing un/underemployment, and the solution is to stem from the government, then the government should set up organizations that empower employment seeking mothers, not coerce organizations to hire them again.

Furthermore, I've never met any business owner that didn't want to rehire a former staff member after they have had their maternity leave. The only time I've seen someone lean on that law was when they knew they were going to get fired (written up twice out of three times) so they had a child to reset the write-up policy.

> I understand that all businesses wish to have a workforce consisting only of young well-educated males that are never sick, never take vacations and work lots of overtime, but there's a cost to getting that, and almost all businesses forget, or refuse to understand the value society provides to them. You want a workforce? Sure, it's gonna cost you, both in corporate taxes, and in social responsibility by employing less desireable individuals. Tough shit, pay up.

First off, most businesses do not want a workforce of men like me. Young, well-educated, male, lots of OT. We're too much like cowboys. We hate process. We hate meetings. We might be great at startups, but we are terrible in most other organizations, and yet most of us don't even know it.

As for the cost, "that is what the money is for" if it is citizens that want to be educated. Citizens that want to build roads. Citizens that want to have a safe and peaceful place to live and work. Citizens that want to buy products in an open market. Then those citizens will vote for those things. If you want to tax and impose rules on corporations then extend them the right to vote. No taxation without representation and all that (ironically, this is why governments are taken over by lobbyists, since the defense for having lobbyists was that the government makes rules that impact corporations and that corporations need "sway" in congress to protect their interests). Otherwise, recognize that the products that you use are brought by corporations to you, something most people forget.

> When you spend 3000 Euros to hire someone who nets 1500 Euros, the difference is not "stolen" by the government, it's what you pay to have access to a pool of highly educated potential employees who get free(ish) health care, childcare, pensions that you as an employer don't have to worry about. - mtts

It depends on how it has been "spent". From the employer's perspective income tax should be none of his concern. If the citizens vote for a 50% income tax then that is what they should see on their payment stub.

> Being from Europe originally and having lived in Silicon Valley now for more than 10 years, I did the math on comparative taxes. In the end, it's a wash. If you take into account everything. I make more money in the US. But my retirement costs are higher. And by the time I put two kids through college (college is free in some European countries), it basically balances the extra cash I made over a 20-year career. - alain94040

I did the math from Ontario, Canada to Texas a couple years ago. Even with a 10k bump in pay and full benefits, it was a wash. America pays a lot of taxes.

> I propose a new law for Hungary saying that every company with more than 10 employees should have the same percentage of female/male as that of the population or in special cases (like with IT) that of the field at universities. This would stop some companies profiting from healthy 30 year old single men, and then throw them away like rags once they start feeling the pressure or want children. - hmottestad

That would be disastrous. Special cases governed by whom? Elected officials? There is about another 500 pages of laws. Logging towns, IT, Nurses, flight attendants, basketball players, elementary teachers, the list goes on and on.