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The article can be found here:
https://tinyurl.com/59t5yuft

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A universal basic income would give these people some security so they could do shift work. They can't do regular hours because caring is unpredictable.
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Here's what can happen if a carer gives up work to care. Not sure about the details of this case (something tells me there's more to it than this lady's reclusiveness as she had a job in London before moving home to Ireland to care for her mother) but I'm guessing she was resentful because couldn't afford a home of her own, knew she'd have to sell up and share the proceeds with her siblings once her mother died, and her share wouldn't be enough to live independently. And when her mother was taken into care some of the equity in the house was used up so the money left over would be a lot less. Horrible for her and her siblings, and none of the family are to blame for this situation (by all accounts they did their best to help) but it's a good example of the time bomb ticking for carers who sacrifice so much. They are usually the single woman in the family so they have no one to help them buy a home. https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41569252.html
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As a small business owner of an incorporated enterprise since 1983, we've done nothing but find ways to support our mostly female staff over the decades. The key is "support" and not "subsidize". It is already difficult for medium to small businesses to make money when we've been supporting flexible expectations/work hours for parents, paid and unpaid maternity/paternity leave (when parents went on leave we had to ALSO pay for a replacement of a highly skilled position), offering cafeteria plans that included daycare; big healthcare packages, etc. (and all of this comes with a compliance burden which means you are adding to your admin person's responsibilities). Many small businesses don't have an "admin person"... the owners/ officers need to do it rather than focus on making the company directly profitable.

No govt had to mandate any of this for our company: we figured out early on how to attract and retain good people. Multiply this employee cost burden to large global companies competing against China where they pay people dirt and citizens are expendable.

For many years we were also Sandwich Boomers with 3 kids in school and 2+ growing number of elders to help so we've lived this dilemma. We even were doing it during covid: my son and his elementary school son were living in our house. I was WFH while doing remote school with my grandson while my son went to work. Thank you, US Gov, for your very stupid and damaging shut-down.

Smart businesses will already be figuring this new challenge out. But it's an intractable problem since the biggest commodity is not money, but time: there will never be more than 24 hrs in a day. Time is what's required to perform caregiving. Businesses can only do so much. The responsiblity to plan is ultimately mostly on the individual.
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The employers will not do anything. They need employees that will be there everyday. They don't even like family leave where they need to keep your job for you. They either hire a temp or the work gets distributed among other employees. Some will stagger times because employees have kids. Allow employees to work from home. I know me personally would not make a good employee if I had kids at home to care for and a parent with Dementia. Not everyone has a good support system.

When I am 85 my girls will be 50 snd 58. Both work and need to work. Both established in their jobs. If they at 50 and 58 start losing time at work because they are caring for me, I am sure they will be let go and a younger person with no responsibilities will be put in their place for less money. Businesses may be sympathetic in the short-term but not long-term. And its really not their responsibility to cater to their employees. Your replaceable. Never think otherwise.
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Good article, thanks for sharing. I doubt if anything will really change, if it does it will be to slow to make a difference, but it's a start
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Trouble, that is nothing but the truth. The hardest thing is how these requirements will impact small business.

Thanks for sharing.
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