Bloggo-brainwashing

Apparently I have been spending way too much time reading feminist motherhood type blogs - it's starting to leak into more obscure parts of my life.

I was at the hairdressers yesterday when one of the women (discussing the budget) said that the government should support women who have worked before they have children, but that there should be nothing for women who "just keep having children without contributing anything to society." I tried very hard to casually mention that a) someone has to raise the children, if their parents don't, we have to pay someone else and b) people who don't do paid work contribute plenty to our economy and pointed at people who care for elderly and chronically ill relos as an example that I thought might resonate. I was right. Within five minutes the room was full of discussion of the injustice of unpaid work (largely undertaken by women).

In case that wasn't enough, they then started on the evils of Government inefficiency - backing the talkback radio stance of privatisation = efficiency. I can't do it, I can't keep my mouth shut. (This will come as a total revelation to anyone who knows me, I'm sure!) So I banged on about how at least Government inefficiency is distributed across all levels of the organisation, keeping lots of people employed, whereas large corporations keep all their inefficiencies confined to the top executives in the form of monumental salaries, bonuses, luxury travel etc. I have yet to see any evidence that large companies are any more efficient than Government equivalents.

I am happy to concede that small to medium, well run organisations are way more efficient, but when was any Government organisation replaced with one of those?

God my hairdresser must dread my appointments...