[quote=scaredyclassic]im not saying that these things dont have value…to us …as individuals…just that they have no commerial value,just like i cannot price what it is to have sex with my wife.
sure we could contract out that servive. i could be paying escorts to have sex with me.
but that’s kind of ridcuolus right, to say my wife is producing a dolalr value equivalent of what the escort would ahve been paid?
that that is a form of “savings”
to say that this work is not “valued” because we don’t put a price on it is, in my view, kind of missing the point.
this is personal life.
it’s not a markeptlace.
it is based on irrational love an d affection.
sure it’s a shitty deal. love is a shitty deal for everyone involved.
it’s nuts!
it’s not subject to rational whims and efficient pricing.[/quote]
Again, that “love and affection” stuff is used to mask the real value of these services. While married, a spouse might be willing to do all of those things because s/he believes that there is a binding contract (commitment for life — service in exchange for security), but I can assure you that if you were to inform the SAHP that you would be abandoning them after 5, 10, 20 years…they would no longer perform these services for free. Not even close.
As stated before, the market rate for these services is easily ascertained. Just contact an agency and ask them how much it would cost to get a full-time nanny (or nannies) to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Specify that you want this nanny to help with the cooking, cleaning, shopping, run errands, take kids to appointments/activities, etc. Again, this would still not nearly as much as what a typical SAHP would do, but you can at least get some estimates. Stop acting like this is difficult to value; it’s not. And tell them you want someone who will commit to doing it for over ten years…since you don’t want to traumatize Johnny with unnecessary transitions (it might be easy to find someone who will do it for a few months, but VERY difficult to find someone who will commit to many years of doing this service).
