Rating: 
Summary: A new look at a growing problem
Review: "The Baby Boon" not only does a masterful job of examing the conflicts between the childfree workforce and those with children; Burkett goes a step further and points out that most of the benefits given to parents are given overwhelmingly to those who are pretty well-off to begin with. Does anyone here honestly think that flextime is given to minimum wage earners? Even people who provide childcare services don't get it. No one is disputing that raising future generations is vital. What this book does is point out that there are limits to how much the childfree should be expected to sacrifice to make life as easy as possible for those with children.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you Elinor
Review: I thought I was alone in feeling put upon by workers with children. Elinor does a great job in exposing the hypocrisy of the "parent-friendly" workplace where all workers are supposedly equal, and yet some are clearly more equal than others.
Rating: 
Summary: Seems backwards to me
Review: I don't really understand Burkett's thesis at all. It seems to me that raising future generations is a social obligation. Someone has to do it. One could reasonably argue that society ought to pay all of the costs of raising children. Instead, in our society, 90% of the costs and the work are borne by those who volunteer to be parents. Burkett does a reasonable job of analyzing how society subsidizes child raising in various rather minimal ways. But our taxes subsidize research, oil exploration, military defense, and all sorts of other things that are socially desirable. If your house catches fire, taxes pay a hundred percent of the cost of putting out the fire, not just a small fraction. As long as raising children costs more than the financial benefits (and it certainly does, by a long shot), why should we think that those subsidies are too large? Burkett doesn't have a reason.
Rating:
Summary: a wakeup call
Review: This book confirms what I have suspected all along but have been afraid to say. It's sad that there is such a divisiveness between parents and the childfree, but unless something is done to correct these inequities, the bitterness will only get worse.
Rating:
Summary: Elinor For President!
Review: This is the best nonfiction I have ever read. Although I do not live in the United States, I have seen the same workplace inequality she documents. Her book will make you angry, but there are funny parts too, like when she talks about a childless woman who pretended to have kids so she could get good schedules at work and got away with it! I'm going to anonymously mail a copy of the book the owner of my company.
Rating:
Summary: Some of us have had enough
Review: Burkett's book is a wonderful read, a well-researched piece of journalism that accurately illustrates the inequity between the benefits received by breeders and withheld from the ChildFree. It's also a great wake up call to the breeders who go blindly through life, thinking they are entitled to some extra benefit by breeding. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have had enough. Clearly Burkett's book has had a profound impact on the dialogue because she's been on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS and many other places...and the breeders are running scared. The line is drawn and the ChildFree have had it. Burkett's book is a terrific first shot. Let the battle begin.
Rating:
Summary: Finally...the courage to tell like like it sometimes is...
Review: Ms. Burkett masterfully lists many of the inequities faced by people choosing not to have children. Whether in tax policy, subsidizing choices in life, picking up the slack at the office for frequently absent parents or a host of other things, the current "do it for the children" mentality espoused by the Clinton administration has gone so far overboard that the backlash has begun. Few journalists have dared to slaughter the sacred cow known as "everything for the children" in society and politics today, and for that alone Burkett earns four of the five stars for the guts to publish the unpopular. The body of supporting evidence she provides easily earns the fifth.
Rating:
Summary: Truth Hurts Doesn't It? . . .
Review: I'm so sorry that some of the people who have taken on the job and CHOICE of parent are setting such a bad example for their offspring. It's a sad day when you can't disagree with an idea without name calling and belittleing.I'm sorry but not everyone is going to ewww and awwww over your choice. And not everyone should have to tow the line for you because you want your cake and eat it too. There should be flex time for all whether that is picking up your child, taking a pet to the vet or just wanting to leave to take care of other things. Period. and for those to say it works both ways . .. sorry to burst your bubble but in the US anyway that is not the case in a lot of companies . . . I know because I worked in more than my share where it was fine to leave for ANY and ALL child related reasons but none other where accepted as easily including a dieing father. Not admiting there is a problem will not make the problem go away . . . Thank you Elinor Burkett for being brave enough (and oh yes it takes bravery to buck the system) for dragging this topic out of it's comfy little hole in the ground!
Rating:
Summary: A Plea for Fairness
Review: The Baby Boon is a plea for fairness, equal pay for equal work, and "family-friendly" policies that are friendly to ALL families, not just those with children! It should be required reading for all politicians and policymakers. I especially like how the author shows that "family-friendly" policies and the tax code are unfair not only to the childfree/childless, but also to poor families with children--these two groups lose, and affluent parents win. The Baby Boon calls attention to an undeniable injustice, so I'm sure that the affluent parents who are getting a sweetheart deal under the current system will hate it, especially because deep down inside they KNOW they're getting way more than their share of benefits!
Rating:
Summary: Parents, Stop Picking The Childfree's Pockets!
Review: Elinor Burkett has done a masterful job of outlining the veryreal problems childfrees face in the USA. Along with discrimination inthe workplace and rampant social ostracism among those who are *very* threatened by our choice not to have children, our taxes are paying for the various "family-friendly" programs currently in force in the United States. There are fourteen million childfree adults in America. Legislators will be hearing from them (and being voted out of office by them if there is no action to make the tax codes fair to all,)after reading Elinor's book.
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