I know not to many people here will agree with me, but I’d be likely to support this. In my own example, I’ve worked more or less continuously since finishing school twenty years ago, and throughout that time, I’ve paid continuously paid into unemployment. The only time in my life that I have ever been able to recoup any of that money was after the birth of my son, when I was able to avoid turning him over to strangers to care for him for another six months after my wife’s six months of maternity leave ran out. It wasn’t anybody else’s money but my own, but given my skill level, I’m unlikely to ever face unemployment, so there’s likely to be no other way for me to get any of that money back, and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to keep my six-month old son out of daycare. Ultimately, my wife left her job after the end of my leave, so he ended up never having to be cared for by strangers at such as young age. By the time preschool rolled around at age 2, I felt that he was ready.
I’ll also add that IMHO the grand scheme of those who seek to destroy “the West” as Trump put it yesterday is to replace Westerners (and yes, that includes non-white people who have adopted Western values and ethics) with others, via abortion and immigration, respectively. Rational Westerners who take responsibility for the sustenance of themselves and their families tend to forgo having a lot of kids because of financial considerations. Paid family leave will not by itself reverse that — the Trump economic boom will do far more — but every bit helps.
That said, the details are important. In California, it’s a part of the already government-mandated unemployment insurance program, so there’s really no taxpayer dollars at issue, unless you consider government-mandated insurance as a tax (well Justice Roberts does, so I suppose that’s not unreasonable!). I wouldn’t support it as a plain tax-financed, means-tested welfare entitlement, but it will probably end up somewhere in between.
I say make it easier for women and men to work remotely part time.
It’s no coincidence that the countries in the world with the most generous “paid family leave” programs also have the lowest birthrates. That sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true.