The main driving force of work is personal debt. Paying the mortgage, saving for investments to retire on, that sort of thing. Housing prices are in the hands of the public and cannot be, nor should they be, controlled or regulated. But what shoud be curtailed are government taxes including rates and charges. It is that constant battle to pay the government its dues that worries families and forces men to work for more years than what the would otherwise choose.

The only way out it seems, if you can't see how to invest well, is to opt out and go on welfare. (As half the population have in this country). That way you get a living wage and a life time of free time.

Of course the only problem with this senario is that the responsible buggers still in the workforce not only have to secure their own future, but they have to secure yours as well with an average of 50% of their wages going towards tax and your welfare cheque.

Well said Daniel - I think there is a lot people ignore or forget about when they say they *need* to work those long hours, *need* to eschew family friendly workplace policies offered to them because promotion might suffer....when all that promotion would mean is LONGER hours for more money for more crap you don't really need!

It is entirely possible to own your own house, have a family and pay your fair share into the community, not necessarily in taxes (which go to buying politicians trips overseas just as much as supporting those 'lazy dole bludgers'...incidentally - the comment above was obviously made by someone who has never tried to live on government benefits...!) perhaps by volunteering.... The point is that you can't have EVERYTHING. These things might come at the expense of that second car...or owning a car at all...it might come at the expense of having to put in the effort and wash your own nappies (setting a good example there D!) instead of the more expensive disposeable option...you might have to live in regional Australia instead of Mosman...

What needs to be said is that there are choices to be made - sacrifices to be made - to find happiness. If your happiness is actively raising your kids (in my opinion - the only acceptable reason to have children at all!) then you need to do that. That means MAKING time... no excuses!
If it doesn't really matter to you that much then don't have kids, really it's that simple! The world will not end.

Several points on this topic:

1) The scary thing is how everyone talks about 'work-life balance'. See work comes first! It should be about 'life-work balance' & there should be a recognition by employers that it is not just about 'family friendly' policies but life friendly policies.

2) In my experience employers discount people who are not available full time & deny them access to interesting work. This means that people who wish to have some balance in their lives are penalised because they do not devote their entire energy to the company. This is not necessarily about more money but about interesting and fulfulling work.

3) In the frenzy to implement family friendly policies again forgotten are those amongst us who do not have childcare or family responsibilities. While they are off having 'quality' time away from work it is people like me, who it is blithely assumed, will work the public holidays, do without leave during school holidays & work overtime.

Geekgirl2,

Excellent points.

I have discussed at length these issues with colleagues. Particularly gay and lesbian colleagues in my workplace who point out that they are discriminated against because of the 'family' focus of work balance policy.

One bloke pointed out that we all have major events that impact on our life like birth, death and marriage - because we are all part of families. Not just as parents, but brothers, daughters and close family friends.

More than life balance, which you propose - I am leaning towards community balanced policy. Workplaces that acknowledge we all have parts of our lives that make us part of a community - we volunteer, we sit on community committees and school boards, we coach sports teams, we revegetate, we protest, we create art...

All these things are also work (just not paid). They contribute to the economic, social and environmental well-being of community. Society would do well to put all these at a similar level and remove the pressure on us all of participating in paid work 40-60 hours a week.

You are right...even at the most basic level we are putting paid work first. We need to start supporting each other to chnage our ways.

The problem with you socialists is you don't realise that you are now reaping what you have sewed.The reason why we have to work so much is that someone has to produce enough wealth to pay the taxes to support the socialist state.We have huge unproductive bureauacries and millions on social security.Someone has to pay the price of long work hours.We might have public servants,but there are many slaves in the real private economy on low wages who make it all possible.
Sonjhos