Every now and then, we hear the proposal that women be paid to stay at home and be moms. That women are paid to be surrogate mothers suggests that regular mothers also deserve payment. So. Should we pay regular mothers the same as surrogate mothers?
For starters, who is this ‘we’? Surrogate mothers are paid by the people who want their labor. Who wants the children of non-surrogate mothers? The state? If so, for what? There is no civil service labor shortage. We aren’t at war. And if we were, we would need more soldiers, not more children. So the job paid for should be not ‘making a child’ but ‘making a soldier’. Because if we’re going to pay, it would be a job. You’d have to wait for an opening and then apply. So not only would the state, should it be the employer of mothers, have the right to be quite specific about the job description (“Women wanted to make soldiers”), it would have the right to be quite specific about the qualifications (“genetic make-up must include average IQ or lower, above average physical health and fitness, pliant personality….”). And it would have the right to be quite specific about the performance standards – no drinking on the job, or substance abuse of any kind except that prescribed by the employer, etc.
You want to be paid for being a mother? Well, he who pays the piper picks the tune.
