This guy.
Rand Paul praises the dignity of work, but hates the big government policies that encourage it http://t.co/mxs6NJmwME
— Vox (@voxdotcom) April 9, 2015
Writing today on the site that explains…the sort of output that academia often passes from its bowels…er, hallowed halls, that is…okay, no, the former, Noted Everyman in the Trenches Matthew Yglesias took a hard, Voxy look at Rand Paul’s statements that Paul made regarding work in the announcement of his run for the Oval Office. Matty thinks that big government is pretty cool. Matty also thinks that having more working moms is pretty cool. He has charts and stuff comparing America to other countries to show how the US isn’t as cool as those other places when it comes to big government, as well as chicks–many of them moms–participating in (and getting protected-class status time away from) the workforce.
Yet he offers no definitive explanation of how big government and labor force participation rates correlate, except to say that their relationship is “pretty well-known…and well-understood.”
Like I said, this guy:
In the case of women, the relationship between big government and more work is pretty well-known (among those who bother to care) and well-understood. The issue is that in most capitalist societies, a large number of women are out of the labor force at any given time because they are taking care of children. In societies that temper the free market with subsidized child care and mandatory paid leave policies, mothers find it easier to remain connected to the workforce and to combine parenting with work.
America’s failure to adopt such policies explains why our female labor force participation rate has stalled even as other countries’ rates surge.
Other countries have big governments.
Other countries have higher female work force participation rates.
Therefore, big government taking care of moms like moms taking care of kids is cool.
You know what’s also cool, according to Matty? “Generous” welfare states. Welfare’s pretty cool.
And yet if you look at international data, it turns out that big government and a generous welfare state lead to more work — at least for 25- to 54-year-olds in the prime of life.
The jury’s still out on whether Matty thinks “American Protestantism” is cool…
“Work is not punishment,” [Rand] argued. “Work is the reward” — an idea that harks back to some very old themes in American Protestantism.
It’s old and religious, so we can assume it’s probably not cool.
What else isn’t cool, said Matty? Students working their way through college. Old people working for retirement. And talking about the “idle poor twiddling their thumbs.” What people on welfare do isn’t the point, you guys.
Also not the point is the “ambiguous and less well-researched” drop in male workforce participation in most of those cool big government countries he used as examples in his fancy graphicals.
The point is that Rand Paul is so not cool.
