A Zero Sum Game?

Vindicated! (or more gently, here) By The Economist no less. Ha. The January 2nd edition, containing the quote above, left me feeling pretty damn satisfied, given my rantings on this subject over the past two years. I was especially pleased with the Schumpeter column in this issue:

People who bang on about innate differences should remember that variation within subgroups in the population is usually bigger than the variation between subgroups. Even if it can be established that, on average, women have a higher “emotional-intelligence quotient” than men, that says little about any specific woman. Judging people as individuals rather than as representatives of groups is both morally right and good for business.

Which echoes my own thoughts on the matter of gender, as penned last June (see the footnote):

I take the somewhat radical position that there is just as much intra-gender as there is inter-gender variation therefore one cannot make meaningful predictions about intelligence, behavior and career prospects based on gender alone. Do men and women have real biological differences that impact behavior? Yes. But in a civilized society where intelligence is more critical than brute force for professional success, I’m not convinced that it matters.

But most importantly the briefing hit home on the fact that if we really want to make progress, we need real changes in the support systems for working parents. This is not a matter of changing norms and attitudes any more, it’s about being practical in the logistics of working and raising children. What I find odd as a new parent is the way in which bearing children seems to be seen as a sort of hobby. A side occupation which one should keep to herself unless in the company of like minded folk. Among the over-population crowd (of which I am too familiar! but more on that later) children = selfishness. Oh, the irony. That we benefit broadly as a society from successive generations (who else is going to pay off all this debt!!) but expect parents alone to bear the costs, is a huge market failure.