I would like to stress, for the record, that resistance against me is most certainly NOT futile. Also, I will not put voices in your head or turn you into a cyborg, nor will I ruin your skincare.
Having said that, it would be duly appreciated if you would be so kind to lower your shields and surrender. The Collective thanks you for your cooperation.

I was not argueing against the need for time off to recover after giving birth. I was argueing against the policies that a lot of companies still have to (silently) limit career options for women who give birth when working for such a company. There is literally no career that can't be followed by someone who gave birth during that career. This, like any form of recovery that interrupts work, should be valued on a case by case basis instead together with the person in question. So I was more talking about the old fashioned rules that are still in place with some companies (and some men).

So in the case of the sims. I argue for giving the sim in question the right to come back earlier to work if he/she would wish that. And fortunately there is no sacking or denying promotion because of this in the sims. And if said sim decides to quit the job to stay home and take care of the child, so be it. For the company in question it is no different then that the employee gets another job by a different company. It is fair game.

Oh, I am against positive discrimination btw. Positive discrimination is just fighting symptoms. It does not solve anything. It should always be simple. Best sentient suited for the job. So sentient bots too.

@GrijzePilion Just a heads up, that if you actually say things like that to human females in real life, out loud and not in your head, then that may be another reason, alongside your penchant for simming over socialising, that you remain single.

People are offended by facts nowadays. The Generation Snowflake are looking for excuses to get offended. Anything you say or do will be offensive to some. I'm a progressive, a feminist and a social democrat, but I can't stand snowflakery.

And yes, most people are stupid and ignorant. This is why corporations and politicians keep screwing them over.

I dunno, for some "hooman females" (why did I think that in my head in a Ferengi accent? XD XD) might SAY "shields up" when they hear that out loud, but their eyes, oh, their eyes say a hull breach is imminent.

Bahahah hahah I think the -7F weather has done something to my brain.

I wonder if they'll think it's sexy when I get all offended and demand that they take off all their clothes, then walk over to the closest male and offer him a bar of Latinum for her companionship.
Eh. We may never know. Hoo-mans are strange, complex creatures.

Only one bar? I dunno. I know for at least two bars, you can get a hoo-man female that would even oil your ear-ridges. That's a good deal, I'd think. XD XD XD

ETA: We've totally derailed this convo. Bahahahahaa!

It is true that Oo-mox, while completely unprofitable, is more than worth that extra bar. But I'm sure this thread's a dead horse and I don't beat those.

This is the type of derailment that I like- Grijse and nitromon are like a double act and they could keep me entertained for hours! :lovestruc

Just a heads up! I split the thread in half, so you guys can talk about maternity leave and political debates right in this thread!

So, (something I wasn't expecting to say here) Please don't talk about the ts3 stuff in this thread, for that you can do it riiight here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=622222

Here we have a one year long "pool" that can be shared between the parents (bunch of rules, not going to go into them), and you can extend it to some degree by going a little down in what you're paid while on leave (1 year with 100% of salary, or longer with 80 or so%). After my brother's second kid was born, he (for a variety of reasons) got most of the maternity/paternity leave. He also used some of his paternity leave to stay home with their third kid for one day a week when she got a little older (around 1-2 years old, I think). Both of them have a strong bond to him, perhaps stronger than his first kid, who spent the majority of his early childhood with their mom. So who says the mom has to be the one staying home with the kids? Daddies could also need a bit of bonding time with their kids in the early years.

Well lessee - I'm in the States, and the last time I was eligible (or so I THOUGHT I was) for maternity leave was like, 11 years ago. I was hired on to a company in April, clearly stated that I was pregnant (I worked from home) and was due in June. "Oh, you'll get (unpaid) maternity leave." Mmmmhmm.

So, time comes, I call the office to remind them (I had already let them know more than a month in advance) that I was going out for 3 days to give birth and would call when I returned to set up the leave.

"Oh, no, you're not getting leave."

oooookay then. Go pop out the kiddo, come back to a nastygram from these chuckleheads that not only were they reiterating no maternity leave, BUT BUT BUT they were also gonna fire me for no-call-no-show. DESPITE me documenting it up the butt. So, the next day, I'm back at my desk (I worked from home) at midnight, when I SHOULD BE SLEEPING, transcribing doctorese. This wasn't the WORST of the offenses this frickin company did, but it was pretty high up there.

This is relatively common here in the States - and man, I could so go into it really heavily (I think there should be parental leave, period. Male, female, doesn't matter.) but yeah, there's my personal lovely experience with this bullcrap.

It's probably because of the union thing, the fact that you guys don't have them for the most part. There's plenty of countries where what you described is illegal and would most certainly warrant you suing and squeezing a fat wad of cash out of them. When Walmart decided to expand into Germany, they took their American values with them......the chain's famous employee morale rituals and customer service protocols were seen as creepy, fascist and embarassing, and when they tried to defy the unions they were struck down hard by the courts. Turns out that their values where inherently incompatible with the labor unions, and the Germans hated every part of Walmart's American hubris. Amazon's been making the same mistake lately. The way American companies treat their people, we simply wouldn't tolerate it. It's the quickest way to scare your clientele off and make the unions very, very cautious.

Irrelevant story aside, it must always come down to treating people equally whilst embracing our differences. Equality's job isn't to get in the way of our inherent differences. That's why both fathers and mothers should have a legal and indisputable right to parental leave and why feminine hygiene products should be priced down to an absolute bare minimum.....if paid for at all. As a society, we should seriously look at things like Universal Basic Income and consider what it can do to bring us together because the starting point should be equality, with clearly defined conventions that factor in specific groups of people.

Oh yeah, definitely, Grijze. I agree. Medical transcriptionists weren't allowed to unionize at ALL, and it really hurt us in the long run, because we weren't able to negotiate for anything. My father worked for the American division of Felix Schoeller here before they downsized, and he was a union rep. It was much better to be in a union, that's for sure. Some companies have it, or HAD it - the last one I was in was a grocery store, but they didn't have the kind of union that dad had with FS.

I'm not certain, but I think Aldi (Nord) here in the US has a decent union; or at least they pay decent. I wish the US was better with a lot of things, that's for certain.

I am all for an UBI, and more green spaces/more government cash spent on green solutions instead of polluting fossil fuel stuff; it's better all around for everyone. When UBI was introduced as experimental in some areas, it really turned things around - less divorce rate, better health of all citizens, better education rate, etc.

Will the US do that? I'm not certain. There's quite a few folks who say that they don't want their tax money going to health care for people like me, who can't work because of a serious medical issue. But they have Noooooo problem paying car insurance, or house insurance, or any other insurance where if someone who has their same insurance and has an accident gets paid out of the slush pile of money said insurance company has accrued from all their clients. It boggles the mind.

If we want to advance as a society, we definitely DO have to think about how we take care of each other.

The US won't be quick to adopt any of it because it's a very conservative and partisan society. Even if there were a group of people willing to experiment with new ideas to improve society, there'd always be that other half you can't reason with. And since each new president brings a new government with them, there's a big flipflop every 4-8 years which prevents long-term measures from having an effect. Blaming capitalism for everything is such an old card to play but from the looks of it, it's the only thing that's truly at fault for creating a culture where everything is directly or indirectly under the control of shareholders. There's a few "edgy" socialists in politics and they've got potential, but they're not going to be able to change a culture which prides itself on taking a narrow-minded approach to dealing with people.

What I think maybe Grize means is that the whole thing DOES switch from Repugnican to Demonrat - err. Republican to Democrat pretty much every time there's an election - be it midterm or presidential. Mostly, it's the lobbyists and other BS that makes the government run, and the people? Us people? We don't have much of a say, despite "them" saying we do. The Electoral College is a joke, and we're not even a representative democracy like they want you to think - it's more of a plutocracy.

I live in NY State, which is a close second to California in shitsville. Ugh. Blech. I don't think ANYONE in Congress who isn't newly elected (I am talking like, NEW new, not "been in politics for several years at the local level and got in") gives a shit about the poor. We're disposable to them.

I really like that Ocasio-Cortez figure. She's the fresh blood your politics need and she's a fighter. I don't believe in these fossils, even if I don't have any major gripes with people like Pelosi, and getting actual millennials with actual stances in is a great idea. People who've actually experienced the shitstorm for themselves. Problem is Republican America loves nothing more than shooting themselves in the foot so you can count on them continuing to do so. Ocasio-Cortez knows how to make a case and she does a good job of making the fossils look like fossils. There's also that lawyer guy that was helping that porn star take on Trump and he seemed really good at first, but he's Elon Musk'ed himself a bit lately by having a bit of an ego.

I knew Elon was bad business the moment I saw a meme about him magically growing a new head full of hair after PayPal took off. And when he called that guy a pedophile I was like, this guy's well past his prime. People who are truly concerned about improving the world have no interest in things like that. Look at Bernie Sanders, he's the kind of character you know actually gives a crap. Anyone who shows up to politics with a perfect hairdo, a manicure and a $5000 suit is clearly too far up themselves to do a good job.

Pffffft the Congress might write laws, but right now they're too busy infighting to get anyone to agree about the gov't shutdown. We have the checks and balances system for a reason, that's definite. But what GOOD is it if 435 chuckleheads sit on their thumbs and wait for a "permission slip" from Tangerine Mussolini? (who is using this shutdown to distract folks from his legal and criminal issues/possible impeachment - which doesn't mean much, either. Clinton was impeached and remained President.)

You might be surprised by how much non-Americans know about what's going on over here. I watch a LOT of Euro news and they are pretty darn aware of the BS going on here.

Not trying to start a super giant argument here, just.. stating an opinion; we old people have a shit-ton of opinion.

Oh, and Bernie? Ennnnhhhhh he didn't do very much in Vermont when he was politically attached there. There's a lot of folks on the "liberal" side that don't like him much. He does have interesting ideas, but he's also super entrenched into the rich person's mentality. I wonder if someone like him would have no problem paying a higher tax rate to help pay for a universal health care system. So far, all I hear is talk, and I don't see much action. Deeds, not words.

Of course one cranky old socialist isn't going to change society for the better but you're a lot further along when you give that one guy the chance to make a change. The Republicans will always deny, lie and obstruct and I don't know if there's any way to pull them out of that downwards spiral but Trump's taking a lot of damage with this shutdown circus. And while he's so eager to call it the Democrat shutdown, he's right in saying that the Democrats have the upper hand in this situation. Pelosi & Co can either give him what he wants or continue the shutdown, and they're absolutely making the right choice by having a spine and not giving in to the orange idiot's temper tantrums.

Obviously I can't stand gutless politicians, especially ones that have their pockets lined by lobbyists. I wouldn't dare accuse most Democrats of having a spine but sometimes they make a good call or two. I'm just worried that, being a European and a nostalgic type, people are losing sight of how things should be. The Democrats aren't the left and the Republicans aren't the right. Republicans are total extremists these days and the Democrats can barely call themselves liberal anymore. And where I'm from, the liberals are the ones on the right side of the spectrum. This two-party gig isn't healthy and I hope there will be room for a third one someday. Preferably one that can fill the gaping hole on the left.

Now the reason I bother to educate myself on this is simple.....your politics are grade A entertainment. Ours are boring and we're lucky to now have the Brits making a right mess of it as well, closer to home, but the Americans are the go-to political drama narrative in this day and age. No fictional TV show could hope to compete. We're going to get some good-ass movies out of this, I tell you.

They are grade A entertainment! Nothing says "bread and circuses" like the US govt. heh.

Now, to bring this bad boy back around to the subject - what kind of politics do you think Sims 3 has? If any? Without interference from users who play it, that is. My gameplay tends to be story-based, so... not much politics-wise.

Same shit, different language. I never really go into the full details of it but I'm sure Jeremy thinks Europe is a country and Laura thinks Reagan has all the right ideas. And now that we're in 2018 I'm sure some of those protests outside City Hall are actually Make Simania Great Again-themed.

The Sims is proof that big government WORKS