[quote=CA renter]
This is precisely the problem. Since wage-earning is easy to value by default, since one’s paycheck shows the perceived value of the work, there is no dispute that it is “work.”
OTOH, we rarely compute the work that caretakers do if they are working within their own homes or for their own families. How much would you have to pay for someone to be there for your children 24/7? How much to make all the appointments and shuttle people to these appointments and manage all the follow-up? How much to manage a family’s finances — including bill paying, negotiating contracts and doing due diligence on service providers, doing investment research and allocating financial resources? How about a family’s financial/legal business like estate planning, insurance, home purchases, etc…especially if that tends to be managed by one spouse? And even though the subject is taboo, what value do we place on having biological children who will carry our last name…should the person who facilitates this do it for free, especially when they risk their health, their bodies, and reduce their value to future potential suitors?
Is any of this “work”? If so, how should we value it? Because it’s traditionally been done by women (who were owned by men, much like slaves…does a slave’s work have value, even if he/she was not paid?), should we assume that this work has no value?[/quote]
Do these tasks have any more or less value if they are done by a person who works for wages in addition to working at home.
I am not trying to belittle domestic duties in the slightest. I just don’t understand why domestic duties have more value if done by a stay at home parent than if done by a person who works outside the home. The same stuff needs to be done. Period. Houses don’t clean themselves, lawns don’t mow themselves, investments don’t invest themselves, bills don’t pay themselves. Every household, whether a 2 salary, single salary, or no salary household has to make sure food is in the fridge, kids are put to bed (if there are kids in the household) and the vacuum is run periodically.
As a working parent – I used preschool and after school care. So I exchanged money for childcare. That didn’t abdicate my responsibility as a parent – just as Mr. CAR probably does activities with CAR-kidlets. I haven’t hired gardening services or housecleaning services… so Mr. UCG and I divvied up the tasks… and as the kids grew older – delegated some of the tasks to them. We’re a household, we work together. There is no more value or lesser value to mowing the lawn if you pay for it, get paid for it, or do it for free… the grass still gets mowed.
