Rating: 
Summary: Thanks, Elinor!
Review: Elinor Burkett's bold new book, The Baby Boon, encourages and empowers the millions of childfree Americans who, due to newly created tax laws and corporate policy, are forced to subsidize and support middle-to-upper income working parents to a degree that has already resulted in an unAmerican redistribution of wealth. Many singles and childless couples are unaware that while their own tax bills have remained constant over the past few years, brand new tax laws have recently taken effect which give huge new tax breaks to people with kids -- the more kids you have, the less you pay. This has resulted in many middle class families with kids paying no Federal income tax whatsoever! Nothing! Not a dime! And as hard as that is to believe, it's a reality. If these were low income people who needed help, I think many of us would agree it was the right thing to do, but they're not. These breaks are given regardless of income. The recipients are your next door neighbors! And wisely, like most people who've been given an unfair advantage over others, these lucky winners in the tax lottery are keeping very quiet about their good fortune. But Burkett's book is bound to make this and other child-based inequities common knowledge. I'm encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive reviews of this book. I agree with those who've suggested buying and sharing the book, leaving a copy in the breakroom at work or tacking up a book review on the bulletin board. Let's get this important issue out in the open where it belongs!
Rating: 
Summary: Proudly serving her corporate masters
Review: Corporations exploit workers most effectively when they turn worker resentment against unreasonable and unfair working practices against other workers. If you have workers who refuse to work unreasonable hours and give up their lives for what is defined as a 40/hr a week job, exploit those that do more effectively. Make those workers who work 80 hours resent the workers who work 40-50 as opposed to resenting the unreasonable work demands. A useful mechanism to use is to have workers blame children and thier parents for not meeting unreasonable work demands, as the attacks on children by childless peers will ensure that there is mutual hostility in the workforce. This lack of communication enhances corporate opportunities to exploit employees by pitting them against each other. While a moment of critical thought will make clear to each group (parents and childless) that they have common cause against being overworked while upper management reaps the rewards, enough people will be intellectually flaccid and emotionally bilious as to make this strategy work. "The Baby Boon : How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless" by Elinor Burkett should be mentioned frequently to childless employees to make certain that they thwart their own interests by attacking other employees and never uniting against unreasonable employer expectation. If workers in the same office can be divided by narrow ill-aimed hostilites the global fair labor movement hasn't a chance! Good work Elinor!
Rating:
Summary: Honest, Fair, and Fantastic!
Review: This book takes the reader up for a bird's eye view of the big picture in America -something that can be easily missed in daily life. The very articulate author exposes how not only people without children, but the poor, and other minorities suffer as a result of middle class parental entitlements. A must-read for people without kids and political science majors! Consistent exposure, like this book provides, will help (hopefully) lessen the daily prejudices that childfree people have to encounter. The author also reminds us that tomorrow's childless and childfree people are someone's children right now... Thank You.
Rating:
Summary: It needed to be said!
Review: Ms. Burkett does an excellent job of pointing out the benefits that companies and the government give to those who choose to become parents. Having just returned from having lunch with a friend (who has a 9-month-old) whose company allows her to work 80% of the hours she previously worked, while collecting the same salary, I'm finding the book to be quite topical. If someone deliberately chooses to train for the Eco-challenge, or climb Mt. Everest, knowing that their choice entails financial hardship and less time to devote to a career, should the government step in to help them out? "Of course not," people would answer, "since they made that choice themselves. They knew it would be expensive and time-consuming yet chose to do it anyway." So why should it be different for those who choose to spend their money and time birthing and raising children? Ms. Burkett has done a great service in bringing these issues to light.
Rating:
Summary: At last, someone speaks up for the rest of us
Review: Although I support "family friendly" policies in principle, I'm appalled by the way they're usually implemented. "Family" is defined in the 1950's manner as "parent(s) with children," and anyone whose "family" situation doesn't fit the mold is barred from taking advantage of these policies. Many companies are generous with time off for parents; but a gay person who wants a day off to tend his partner who just had minor surgery, or a single woman who needs to take her elderly mother to the doctor, often find themselves obliged to take vacation time because this is considered "personal business." I completely agree with the intent of "family friendly" policies in recognizing that employees have lives too -- but in practice the policies often seem to assume that only parents have lives! This book does a great job of documenting these inequities, and I feel that the author's point is a good one: if companies continue to grant privileges to parents at the expense of their other employees, there will be a major backlash against "family friendly" policies. I commend the author for her courage in speaking up for those of us who aren't parents, and I hope this book stimulates some long-overdue discussion of what "family" really means.
Rating:
Summary: SHE MISSES THE POINT
Review: The issue is NOT breeder vs. childless----both have equally valid claims to being oppressed and needing a break. The real issue is the way in which the runaway economy (call it the Borg Economy) of post-Cold War global capitalism is turning us into souless automations, worker bees slaving away for the capitalist class. Burkett earns three stars for raising an important issue the family values uber alles crowd refuses to address---the rights of the childless---but is docked two for falling into the divide and conquer trap the American ruling class sets for the masses.
Rating:
Summary: I wanted to cry with relief
Review: It is a *choice* to have children, not a right and not a duty. My husband and I have chosen not to - we can't afford the time or the money and (here's my big, dirty secret) I don't want to! I would never suggest to someone else that she should *not* have children - it's a choice. Too bad I'm not granted the same respect. I resent "women's issues" meaning "mothers' issues." Am I now some sort of third gender? I am so glad this book was written to give voice to what we all know happens every day. The Baby Boon raises issues that many people would just as soon keep quiet - and it's about time somebody wrote about them. I especially appreciated the story about the New York Times columnist who had the temerity to suggest that maybe life was about making choices and was promptly ripped to pieces in the press. How dare anyone suggest that motherhood comes with any adverse consequences?
Rating: 
Summary: Our Truth Spoken
Review: What was good enough for the parents of the 50's doesn't appear to be good enough for the parents of the 90's. A simple coffee before heading off to work has become a demand for a double skim decaf no foam venti latte, a simple investment in a station wagon has become a quest for a battle-ready yet performance minded all terrain SUV, and a steady job with good benefits is now a demand for flex-time, tax breaks, family leaves, and subsidized child care plans for self serving yuppies. At least so says Elinor Burkett. And so will say anyone after her reading her funny, intellectually sound, and stunningly truthful, "Baby Boon". When does the decision to have a child cease to become a choice? If history is any example, it seems when women got used to the idea of putting a monetary value on their time and wanted taxpayers to start paying parents for adding Babies 'R Us to the cultural landscape. A chilling proposal since the progeny of the poor didn't seem to merit the same concern when it came time to yank food stamps and AFDC a few years back in the name of welfare reform. A chilling proposal also when one considers that the same women and men who demand reproductive choice for women in the form of Roe v. Wade don't seem to recognize that not having children is also an exercise of that choice. "Family Friendly America", as defined by Burkett is an abandonment of the concept of equal pay for equal work. Any gay, lesbian, senior citizen, single, or child free couple knows this. Some corporations adopting cafeteria-style benefit plans know this as well. Whether through validating the thoughts dare not spoken of these groups or through educating principled and open-minded others, Elinor Burkett's book is a linguistic and thoughtful delight. If not gratitude, at least respect must be paid a feminist bold enough to break ranks and tell this truth.
Rating: 
Summary: What's HER problem?
Review: An angry book, poisoned by its anger. Yes, people with children may get some breaks in the workplace, but it is often at the cost of their careers: mothers who take time off for pediatric appointments, etc. are often typecast and shunted onto a "mommy track" with its own glass ceiling. Many working parents are forced into depriving their children of their time in order to keep competitive with the non-parents. Is this fair? Should there be this inherent penalty in the workplace for those with children? Should those who wish to succeed have to choose between remaining childless or being inattentive parents? We don't know because Burkett chooses not to explore this. Nor does she deal forthrightly with the obvious: As any parent can tell you, the cost of raising a child is gargantuan. A childless person earning the same income as a parent is in effect earning twice as much. The comparatively minor benefits the parent receives do not come close to closing this imbalance. So the question is: Is it not in the best interests of a society to at least in some small way encourage people to have children? (There is, after all, a reason affluent societies need a birth rate. Arguably, there is a selfless element to being a parent, and a selfish one to remaining single and carefree and rich as hell.) This is an interesting question. It deserves an answer. Burkett ignores it. Burkett has an axe to grind, and she grinds it. The sound is very, very grating. It sounds suspiciously like jealousy.
Rating:
Summary: ...and all this time I thought I was alone
Review: I especially like the way this book gives cohesion to, what I am glad, is a growing resentment of the self-satisfied, self-aggrandizing and just plain selfish mentality of the breeder class. "I am a contributor to society", they trumpet, "My child could be the next Beethoven, Einstein or Salk." Your child could also be the next Manson, Dahmer or Hitler. Burkett does a great job of debunking the myth that being a parent makes one "special". Another favorite cry: "Well, somebody has to have children, or the human race will die out". Somebody, but not everybody. The human race is 6 billion and growing at an alarming rate. Only flies, mosquitoes and cockroaches outnumber us. Thank you, Mrs. Burkett, for ably pointing out that choosing to pump out Xerox copies of one's self, is not automatically deserving of all our support. Over abundance of anything becomes less valuable and that includes children.
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