A Belgian minister has been criticised for saying “freeloading” housewives should start working instead of staying at home.
Federal Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, 50, added that “most stay-at-home mothers are of immigrant origin” in a controversial interview with a magazine.
Unemployed Belgians get more in benefits if they have a partner who also stays at home, said the centre-Right Open VLD politician, who is pushing for labour market reforms.
Housewives were “welcome to stay at home and take care of their children, but not at society’s expense,” Mr Van Quickenborne, who is also a deputy prime minister, said.
There’s a serious point behind thing. What should be subsidised? Or considered the human economic unit? The individual or the household?
It’s possible to argue this either way. Tax, subsidise, the household – which is the natural human economic unit. Or the indiviudual, can do it either way.
But note that if it’s the household then this is a definite blow to the economic liberation of women. Their income should be added to male when considiering progressive tax rates for example.
Shrug, just the implication of doing it that way…..
“Unemployed Belgians get more in benefits if they have a partner who also stays at home”
That’s absurd. If each emits about 150W then the presence of the second keeps the heating bill down. And you can probably feed him on scraps.
Looks in mirror. Sees all that white, white hair. God! You’d think I was over three quarters of a century old!!
So I naturally feel that a woman’s place is in the home. I thus of course deplore these vicious innovations that may change the situation from that which God intended.
Perhaps the ladies may now wish to sink the boot in??? I’m sure my sisters’d tell me where to shove it.
“But note that if it’s the household then this is a definite blow to the economic liberation of women. Their income should be added to male when considiering progressive tax rates for example.”
Also a serious embuggerance to conservative ideals about two-parent households, surely? Places that in their wisdom restricted eligibility for government benefits/housing so it was much more generous to single moms rather than a woman who’s part of a married couple have suffered a collapse of marriage rates and family stability in their lower classes. Placing a married couple on £35k apiece onto a tax rate designed for those making £70k, and so on, would be a great way to spread this erosion to the middle classes.
Also a serious embuggerance to conservative ideals about two-parent households, surely?
The conservative ideal probably didn’t involve replacing the Belgian population with low quality migrants who hoover up benefits like Hunter Biden does coke.