3/31 Blog
The Lady and the Tramp (II): Feminist Welfare Politics, Poor Single Mothers, and the Challenge of Welfare Justice.
Gwendolyn Mink
I see why Mink argues that work in the home should be paid but I don’t see her logical argument of how that would be feasible. Although she points out that housework can be calculated by comparing it to the jobs that it is comprised of: childcare, cooking, cleaning, etc. However, would this work be paid hourly? Would every person be able to receive this aid? What about single adults who care only for themselves? Would everyone be paid at the same hourly rate? And the biggest question, where would this money come from? Wouldn’t paid housework essentially be lowering each person’s taxes? Because the wages would most likely come from the government which receives the money via the taxes that every household pays to the government. So the money would just cycle through the system with a lot of money lost along the way as a result of all that processing and organization. I do believe that housework is worth something, especially because people make a living doing aspects of housework.
One thing that I was somewhat confused by was that Mink did not clearly explain how the Personal Responsibilities Act changed the welfare laws for single mothers. I was also confused as to whether she was arguing that single mothers deserve welfare so that they are not forced to work outside the home, or that they should receive welfare to supplement their wages because they are the only wage-earning member of the household.
Finally, as I was researching welfare, I found this article that discusses the amount of money spent on welfare and social services for illegal immigrants. I don’t understand how illegal immigrants can receive all of this aide in food stamps and healthcare and no one seems to be doing anything about it. Its really sad that these people need to basically steal from the rest of the public (because they don’t pay taxes but they reap the benefits) in order to survive.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/mar/county-spends-600-mil-welfare-illegals
Michele,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your deeper thinking about the feasibility of paying for the second unpaid shift--mothering. People are usually so wrapped up in wanting to put greater emphasis and value on the work mothers do for their children, family, and in the home, however, we often neglect the "how" aspect of this thought. I am glad you brought up questions about how would we paid for the mothering shift, will it be hourly, for how long, etc. These are questions I actually didn't think about and I don't know how we would go about answer these questions. Motherhood/fatherhood is like a 24/7 responsibility and it is hard to regulate when and when not one is on the job. However, to think more extensively about it, if we put a monetary value to parenthood we might undermined the value of the it. We will be pinning parenthood in the same standards as other jobs and I don't think monetary value will express the great need of mothers and fathers.