From the leverage ethic and the leverage mean to a national paid parental leave policy

Abstract

Paid parental leave is needed not just because parents have rights or because it would promote the greatest good for society, especially for overburdened working mothers and their families. Paid parental leave is needed because a major force within our society, leveraging, is completely out of balance in our family system. This force needs to be recognized, harnessed, and redirected toward humane ends. Like the Protestant Ethic which was a driving force in the rise of industrial capitalism in the West (Weber 2009), there is a powerful Leverage Ethic that is a driving force in the development of capitalism in the United States and the West more generally in recent decades. This Leverage Ethic, like the Protestant Ethic, is just one causal factor in the development of capitalism today, but it is a very important factor indeed. It not only concerns the kind of financial investment leveraging of the Consumer Ethic which Daniel Bell explained led to the diminishing importance of the Protestant Ethic, but it concerns resource leveraging and bargaining leveraging across societal spheres. The dramatic force of this Leverage Ethic is seen in the family as clearly as anywhere.