What is Occupy Wallstreet?

[kandrathe]

The plural of anecdote isn't evidence. You, of all people here, should know this by now.

Yup. I was just wondering on how Canada confronts those who game the system. Here, we do have a large "dependency class" that if given the opportunity to rely entirely on the government for support, will do so. As contrasted by those temporarily falling into the safety net. In the US, ~50% of income is derived from wages, and the corresponding Canadian number is 78%. 11.2% of Canadian income is derived from government transfers, while in the US it is about 19%. In the US, the government spends $7,427 per citizen on handouts, while Canada spends $2,029 per citizen.

Furthermore, given the spectrum of human activities, if you decide to make your policy calls based on the activity of the outliers, you end up taking things away from the majority.

You mean taking away from the majority the "free" hand out from the government. The money came from somewhere. If you are subsidizing 12 months of salary for 1.5% of the population giving birth that year, that money came from taxing 100% of the people during that same 12 months.

There is significant evidence that society benefits from the availability of maternity leave. Suggesting taking it away because the bottom percentile 'abuses' it is both mean-spirited and bad policy.

I would agree that parental leave is good, and we have that. The question is who pays, the government (taxes everyone), the employer, or the individual. Also, I think there is a difference in the civic spirit of the average American, from the average Canadian. It's why they fled north in the first place. You were all the King's rule followers, and we were the rebels who wanted more anarchy.

I tend to favor having the individual pay for their own expensive decisions (like living in a flood plain. Heh, I just equated childbirth to a natural disaster). Having sex is fun and easy, but rearing children is not. People should not be encouraged by the government to have more children. But, once impregnated, the women and child need to be coddled for societies benefit. It's not that we are not taxing enough, or spending enough. The problem is we are ineffective in our spending.