Comments by "Brenda Rua" (@brendarua01) on "What we don't know about mother's milk | Katie Hinde" video.

  1. Infant nutrition and breast feeding are not woman's issues alone. These are human issues. All of us benefit from the proper nurture of all our children. Can anyone seriously argue otherwise? No. I think we also agree that the fundamentals supporting society are a part of the commons and should be supported by all. Roads, water, disease control, education, defense are ready examples. Health and welfare should be as well if we all benefit from them. Paid family leave, day care, and universal health care are as important as applying science to mother's milk. But mother's milk and infant nutrition are low hanging fruit. We can start there.
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  2. +Starlord, my simple response is to ask how are they paid for now by countries that implement them? But more generally, I am saying these stand in the same position as other common goods. Thus they would be paid for in the same way. It would be a combination of taxes and fees. Now some would counter that we can't afford it. My rebuttal is that we already pay the cost, but we pay in terms of environment, health, life span, and quality of life. It is time to recognize that narrowly defined notions of profit are no longer acceptable. Nor is profit the appropriate measure of all things.
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  3. You're right, Mike. The USofA is pretty screwed up. We laud violence and suppress love. We make a fetish of natural functions. I blame Europe for sending us all their fringe freaks and loons. Heck Australia only got criminals. And they turned out all right. lol
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  4. +Alex I agree with you but think that we need to qualify the statement because not all cultures direct people to react this way. On the other hand, the female form has a long history of association with health and fertility. The paleolithic "Earth Mothers" are an example. Maybe it is a small step from fertility to the sexual fetish? I'm just speculating. It is not clear because breasts are not a universal fixation. That said, lactation should not be an element of it.
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  5. +Starlord That is a lame and shortsighted response. Best you can do?
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  6. +Starloard, my point is that there are some things that go beyond the individual. They are part of the common good, the commonweal. They are paid for out of the commons. I gave plenty of examples. I think it's pretty safe to say that no one argues with this concept. (Well, maybe a few libertarians on the fringe would.) I go on to argue that children and family are also a common good. For you to say "people need to take responsibility" is non-responsive. It's not even in the zip code of my point. It feels like a knee-jerk response that suggests you didn't read or didn't understand what I said. I suppose the latter is on me, if that's the case.
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  7. +Starlord By the same token you espouse, I should not pay taxes to pay for the military to protect markets of corporations in which I don't invest, or schools my kids don't go to, or roads I do not travel, or churches given tax breaks that I do not attend.
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