<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>patmcc</author><text>Right, but if private companies had to pay for parental leave directly rather than through taxes, they would have a &lt;i&gt;huge&lt;/i&gt; incentive to avoid hiring people who wanted to start families.&lt;p&gt;Taxes are the right way to pay for this, just like most things that are for the overall betterment of society.</text><parent_chain><item><author>sbarre</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Punishing them for hiring women who want a family&amp;quot; is a curious way to put it.&lt;p&gt;The reason that private companies should be expected to perhaps shoulder SOME of this &amp;quot;burden&amp;quot; (I disagree with your choice of wording there) is that we all live together in a goddamn society and there should be a part of everyone&amp;#x27;s effort (private individuals, businesses and the government) that goes towards the overall betterment of that society as a whole, and that includes supporting those that choose to procreate and keep our society going.</text></item><item><author>Pxtl</author><text>Important to note that these are &lt;i&gt;government&lt;/i&gt; leave programs.  A big problem in the USA is that it is expected that your employer handle this stuff.&lt;p&gt;Here in Canada, the employment insurance system - a payroll-tax-funded program that handles short-term unemployment benefits - also handles parental leave.  They offer 4 months for birth mothers and a an additional 8 months for any parent.  The money is tiny - something like half your salary capped to a poverty-level wage, but it&amp;#x27;s better than nothing and good employers will subsidize it somewhat.&lt;p&gt;My wife and I split the leave with our 3rd kid.  5 months for her, 7 for me.  It&amp;#x27;s easily some of the happiest days of my life.&lt;p&gt;There is no reason that private companies should be expected to shoulder this burden.  It&amp;#x27;s practically punishing them for hiring women who want a family.  This is the exact kind of case that government &lt;i&gt;exists&lt;/i&gt; for.</text></item><item><author>ceejayoz</author><text>Yup.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnDi8KlIIAA750F.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pbs.twimg.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;BnDi8KlIIAA750F.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;US provides zero weeks paid maternity leave. Pakistan provides 12. Venezuela manages 18. Canada does 50.&lt;p&gt;Per Wikipedia, the US joins Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and Liberia as the only countries to not provide paid parental leave of any kind.</text></item><item><author>PeterisP</author><text>Pretty much every country in the world, both &amp;#x27;first-world&amp;#x27; and  poor countries, has it better than USA in this regard.&lt;p&gt;Let this serve as a warning for young (age-with-a-potential-to-have-a-family) people who might be tempted to relocate to California - you have to ask for a significant premium in salary, since even in good companies (the OP lists multiple items where her job is considered &amp;#x27;above average&amp;#x27;) you&amp;#x27;re simply not getting  as good conditions as the absolute minimum mandated elsewhere even for the cheapest entry level jobs.&lt;p&gt;Locally, a shelf-stacker in the most cost-cutting-oriented local supermarket gets far better maternity leave conditions than those described here.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA</title><url>http://the-toast.net/2014/10/27/employer-put-fml-fmla/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>Drakim</author><text>In my opinion that&amp;#x27;s what taxes are supposed to be, not just for carrying the &amp;quot;burden&amp;quot; of children but ALL the &amp;quot;burdens&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;advantages&amp;quot; of being together in a society.</text><parent_chain><item><author>sbarre</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Punishing them for hiring women who want a family&amp;quot; is a curious way to put it.&lt;p&gt;The reason that private companies should be expected to perhaps shoulder SOME of this &amp;quot;burden&amp;quot; (I disagree with your choice of wording there) is that we all live together in a goddamn society and there should be a part of everyone&amp;#x27;s effort (private individuals, businesses and the government) that goes towards the overall betterment of that society as a whole, and that includes supporting those that choose to procreate and keep our society going.</text></item><item><author>Pxtl</author><text>Important to note that these are &lt;i&gt;government&lt;/i&gt; leave programs.  A big problem in the USA is that it is expected that your employer handle this stuff.&lt;p&gt;Here in Canada, the employment insurance system - a payroll-tax-funded program that handles short-term unemployment benefits - also handles parental leave.  They offer 4 months for birth mothers and a an additional 8 months for any parent.  The money is tiny - something like half your salary capped to a poverty-level wage, but it&amp;#x27;s better than nothing and good employers will subsidize it somewhat.&lt;p&gt;My wife and I split the leave with our 3rd kid.  5 months for her, 7 for me.  It&amp;#x27;s easily some of the happiest days of my life.&lt;p&gt;There is no reason that private companies should be expected to shoulder this burden.  It&amp;#x27;s practically punishing them for hiring women who want a family.  This is the exact kind of case that government &lt;i&gt;exists&lt;/i&gt; for.</text></item><item><author>ceejayoz</author><text>Yup.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnDi8KlIIAA750F.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;pbs.twimg.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;BnDi8KlIIAA750F.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;US provides zero weeks paid maternity leave. Pakistan provides 12. Venezuela manages 18. Canada does 50.&lt;p&gt;Per Wikipedia, the US joins Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and Liberia as the only countries to not provide paid parental leave of any kind.</text></item><item><author>PeterisP</author><text>Pretty much every country in the world, both &amp;#x27;first-world&amp;#x27; and  poor countries, has it better than USA in this regard.&lt;p&gt;Let this serve as a warning for young (age-with-a-potential-to-have-a-family) people who might be tempted to relocate to California - you have to ask for a significant premium in salary, since even in good companies (the OP lists multiple items where her job is considered &amp;#x27;above average&amp;#x27;) you&amp;#x27;re simply not getting  as good conditions as the absolute minimum mandated elsewhere even for the cheapest entry level jobs.&lt;p&gt;Locally, a shelf-stacker in the most cost-cutting-oriented local supermarket gets far better maternity leave conditions than those described here.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>How My Employer Put the “FML” in FMLA</title><url>http://the-toast.net/2014/10/27/employer-put-fml-fmla/</url></story>