mem@sii.UUCP (Mark Mallett) (09/13/83)
b Re: Frank Adrian's views on children. I have always prefered to work at home - before and after having a child. There has never been a case where the "company" has been opposed to this. Some of the time, they have provided me with equipment; later, I used my own. They have always recognized that the extra 4 hours per day they got out of me as being worth the nominal price of what Frank seems to view as immensely expensive support. Where I am contracted now, the company estimates the AVERAGE cost of each software person to be $100,000. A major part of this is office space. Timeshared offices or nonexistant offices can save lots of that money. And compared to this figure, what is the cost of an extra terminal and modem? eh? As for the rest of the employees subsidizing the right of some people to have children: maybe you have it back to front. Do you view your work as something that supports your life, or your life as something that supports your work? Is it having children that is unnatural, then? Choosing NOT to have children is the norm? Something is wrong with this opinion. I wonder if you dispute the necessity of all taxpayers to provide for public education? what is the difference? I have never lived in a house that burned down - I have always supported the fire department. I could go on and on. The above paragraph tends to indicate that I agree with the comment that those who do not work at home subsidize those who do. It of course does not. The comment about supporting two people to do the work of one is absolutely ridiculous. How can you bring yourself to say such a thing? You know, advances in technology ought to (and do) lead to better lifestyles and more personal freedoms. This is a technological industry. My presence is not required at every moment. I don't work a loom or feed a paper folder. You know, one criticism of capitalism is that it places too much power (the means of production and the means of support) in the hands of too few people (recognize that?). The retort is that this is true of abuse of power in general. Related to this issue: the abuse is that there are those who want to dictate working conditions for no reason other than the power of being able to dictate. In summary: I do NOT believe that choosing NOT to have children (hey you in net.nlang - a sentence with two nots) is the normal course. I do NOT believe that allowing people to work at home or to have flexible or creative working hours is counterproductive, in fact I think the contrary is true. I DO believe that the placing of requirements relating to working hours and conditions upon people such as myself is no more than an exercise in power. Mark E. Mallett decvax!sii!mem
pjm@pyuxll.UUCP (PJ Maioriello) (09/23/83)
BRAVO, Mark: As a new father with a 6 week old daughter, I can only add that anyone who considers children a burden for any reason can not have much hope for the future of humanity. Paul Maioriello pyuxll!pjm
paulp@tekcad.UUCP (09/29/83)
#R:pyuxll:-41700:tekcad:22000008:000:348
tekcad!paulp Sep 28 09:36:00 1983
A child is merely a cat substitute that takes way too long learning how
to use the cat box.
Paul Pomes
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