STRONG FAMILIES

Strong families are the bedrock of all successful societies. In America, we often hear glowing talk about "family values," but the unfortunate reality tells a different story: our country is among the least family-friendly in the world. 

For example, the United States, Suriname and Papua New Guinea (along with a handful of island nations) are the only countries which do not require paid maternity leave nationwide. Most developed countries also mandate some paid paternity leave as well, whereas our country again offers none. What benefits do exist in the United States are mandated by states or counties or provided by individual employers.

Developed countries also offer universal affordable child care to their citizens, and have done so for decades, whereas in the United States families struggle to pay thousands of dollars a year just to make sure kids are safe while parents are at work. In today’s globalized economy, where families with two full-time working parents prevail, this is no longer acceptable for any nation which seeks to successfully compete. It’s no accident the countries which do provide comprehensive family support — Germany is a good example — also tend to have robust entrepreneurial cultures and a higher percentage of small businesses.

Proposals:

• Invest adequately in universally-available, high quality pre-school programs to ensure each individual the opportunity to reach their full potential.

• Commit annual federal grants to expand new parent training programs such as the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP).

• Guarantee at least 12 weeks of paid medical maternity or paternity leave to all government and private employees.

  Create a public/private insurance consortium for individuals, families and small businesses to help defray the costs and ensure adequate benefits during maternity/paternity leave cycles.

We believe by pulling together the various stakeholders in our society — government, businesses, schools, churches, NGOs and private charities — we can create a system to more adequately support the building blocks of our civilization: our families. By working together, we will all benefit.

[Policy Hall: Domestic Policy]

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The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.