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Asymmetrical Information: Oh, is That All?

Jane Ann Galt over at Asymmetrical Information [1] notes a post over at Crooked TImber which advocates a European-style paid parental leave system [2] CT defends this nonsense by making light of the percentage of the financial impact:

The experience of parental leave in other countries offers some lessons about its possible effects on the economy, employers, and women’s employment. Parental leave programs generally are not very expensive, amounting to at most one or two percent of GDP.

Jane responds, correctly, that the 1 to 2 percent comes out to…

…..$140 billion dollars a year, at the outside. That would make paid parental leave a top 10, possibly a top 5, programme in terms of budget authority.

A point Jane doesn’t address is that the financial strain on the EU to support such programs is what’s keeping the EU as a whole, in such financial problems.