Thank you, kind sir, for your comments.... but most of all, thanks for confirming my thoughts about Europe!
After all these years, you do know I’m a girl, right? ;)
When I had a baby in Europe, the international co laid me off and I collected unemployment at 90% for a while, then it went down to 80%. I was being paid to stay home with my baby. It was great. But it felt so very wrong. That was my birth as a conservative!