Monday, April 16, 2012

Romney on the Dignity of Work

This past January Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, talked about his efforts to move people off the welfare roles, including the parents of young children.  Here are part of his remarks:

“I wanted to increase the work requirement,” said Romney in New Hampshire. “I said, for instance, that even if you have a child 2 years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless.’ And I said, ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving day care to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’” (Source:  "Romney:  Mothers on welfare need jobs to have the 'dignity of work'." by Pema Levy, TPM 4/15/2012


It always seems odd to me that when women with wealth stay home with children it is a virtue and when women without money stay home with children they are being lazy and lack dignity.

1 comment:

Fernando08 said...

Yes, Jane, it is true, staying at home for the wealthy is full of so much dignity, that if truth be known, it has to be shared. The cook is dignified, the cleaning lady is dignified, the chauffeur is dignified, the wet nurse is dignified the nanny, au pair and baby sitters as well scheduling secretary for play dates and extra enrichment activities, all very dignified. And the music teacher, academic tutor as well as physical fitness instructor, all dignified. Even the dog walker and pooper scooper service are dignified. Alas, with all the work to be done raising children at home and foregoing a career is so simply beyond the capacity of the great unwashed to realized how truely lazy and selfish they are not to sacrifice for the wholesome experience of having a mother's undivided attention. That's why the welfare queens should be driving their Caddies to work, instead of bumming around the household.