The big news in this report is supposed to be that way more fathers are becoming temporary stay-at-home dads in Germany than officials expected. By the third quarter of a new maternity leave incentive program -- which is intended to encourage more Germans to procreate and reverse their declining population -- nearly 10 percent of the applicants were fathers.
That's great, love to see it, equal time, blah, blah.
But what I'm sitting in a depressed puddle of my own ruggedly independent, red, white and blue urine about is the program. Get this:
Whichever parent takes advantage of it, they get a subsidy of up to a little more than $36,000 for a year. The parent taking the year off gets two-thirds of his or her salary for 12 months up to $2,600 per month. Another parent can take an additional two months also getting two-thirds pay. Tax free for both.
And I know someone's going to write in and say something to the effect that people have to be responsible for their own children, etc., and go head and make your case, whoever you are. But also keep reading, because you're going to love what one German guy who took advantage of the program said:
"The politicians act as if it's a huge gift, but actually it's not --
it's an improvement, but I think even more would stay at home if they
could afford it," said Dommer, from Berlin.
Damn, culture shock! Here I felt grateful to cobble together vacation time, sick days and some shitty 50 percent pay for six weeks deal at my employer to get three months of maternity leave. And this German guy thinks up to nearly $37,000 in a year is not enough! God I love Europeans!
And sure, even the full 36,000 doesn't go so far in Germany, especially in the cities. And I can't help but wonder whether single parents even bother with this, or if there's something else out there to help support them. But you just know that after babyhood, there are all kinds of playgroups and childcare centers and Kindergartens and all that, probably pretty cheap, probably pretty good.
386,000 people signed up for the 1.4 billion Euro program, so officials have had to cook the books a little to come out on budget. Next year, they're allotting 4 billion Euros. I think Americans spend that much in a weekend of light-fighting with insurgents in Iraq.
Photo: Bilderbox
