Sweden : Moderates want more dads at home, Tax benefits for fathers who work less

[Tyrael]

Moderates want more dads at home

Published: 27 Feb 08 07:50 CET

The Moderate Party wants to reward families in which fathers choose to work part time to spend more time with their children, and who take time off to care for sick children.

From July 1st of this year a new ‘equality bonus’ will be added to Sweden’s parental insurance program. Families who share parental leave equally will be eligible for tax rebates.

But now the Moderates want to go a step further and expand the equality bonus, according to newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

The party’s high council which is lead by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, points to two areas still lacking equality between the sexes. Currently, a higher number of women—64 percent—take time off from work to care for sick children, and there are more women who choose to work part time.

While only 51 percent of mothers with children under the age of seven work full time, the corresponding figure for fathers is 92 percent.

“We want to look at an equality bonus would take shape, or other incentives for men to stay home to care for sick children and how to get more men to reduce their number of working hours,” said Moderate party secretary Per Schlingman to Svenska Dagbladet.

A working group within the party plans to examine the matter further.

Article link.

They want men and women to be identical in choices and behaviour. Since the far majority are men who pay for Sweden and it clashes with the preference of women it's one of those feminist-inspired, unnatural, forced policies.

The high amount of control that the Swedish-feminist state has and its obsession on artificial, forced equality is appalling.

[bobx23456]

While their motives may be bad, the underlying idea has merit.

Before the industrial revolution, most fathers worked form home. As late as 1900, 90% of American families lived and worked together on family farms. Children grew up close to their fathers, and leaned to be good adults from their father's guidance. That changed with the industrialization of the 20th century when most men were taken away from farms and sent "off" to work in factories. The sacrifice of men broke up families and prevented children from knowing their fathers.

A big goal of the Men's Movement should be to get fathers back to our fmailies. The concept that men should "GO" to work is abhorrent and anti-men. We should not be sacrificed on an altar of industrial production.

Blessings

Bob

[bachelor tom]

Originally Posted by bobx23456

While their motives may be bad, the underlying idea has merit.

Before the industrial revolution, most fathers worked form home. As late as 1900, 90% of American families lived and worked together on family farms. Children grew up close to their fathers, and leaned to be good adults from their father's guidance. That changed with the industrialization of the 20th century when most men were taken away from farms and sent "off" to work in factories. The sacrifice of men broke up families and prevented children from knowing their fathers.

A big goal of the Men's Movement should be to get fathers back to our fmailies. The concept that men should "GO" to work is abhorrent and anti-men. We should not be sacrificed on an altar of industrial production.

Blessings

Bob

I agree that breaking up families is an unfortunate by-product of modernization.

I would quibble a bit with your historical thumbnail: the Industrial Revolution had already started in Britain by the end of the Napoleonic wars. Many people moved to cities away from extended families in the country (eg. the commons enclosure process). The medieval system had meant that, while people lived in small villages, they worked on communal strips that could be distant from the family cottage.

Of course as hunter-gatherers men would travel for days looking for game. I'm not sure a father's daily absence will adversely affect children IF there is an extended family/clan to mind them.

We have reduced the family unit to two parents with no kin in residence, I see this as more of a problem for child development, since only two adults must provide every kind of 'nourishment'.

[Tyrael]

Yeah, but the article says "Families who share parental leave equally will be eligible for tax rebates." It is rarely the case that the father shares equal parental leave with the mother.