海角大神

I recorded my had-to-be-quick take on the Anne-Marie Slaughter article this week for Marketplace radio (and the Marketplace Money weekend show); it is airing this weekend on various NPR stations at various times.

You should to it to see how I managed to get in a dig at the Bush tax cuts (I know it seems to come up in my mind in any context)鈥�

But my main points (from my economist-mom perspective):

The mom in me may still feel pressure from society to have it all, to take care of everything. But the economist in me remembers the law of diminishing marginal utility, that if we could really have it all, whatever we had last obtained wouldn鈥檛 be worth anything to us.

Constraints that prevent us from having it all also force us to prioritize, to choose whatever gives us the greatest value, first. Individuals can鈥檛 do everything we are good at or even best at. A concept economists call 鈥渃omparative advantage鈥� applies here. I might have inherent absolute advantage in terms of my skills as an economist over some men and women who have more successful careers as economists than I. But my greatest comparative advantage 鈥� absolutely! 鈥� is as mom to my own kids鈥�

So women 鈥� and anyone 鈥� shouldn鈥檛 be sad about not being able to 鈥渉ave it all.鈥� It only means we have to 鈥渟ettle for鈥� having what makes us happiest.

One of these days I might find the time in my (happily)-falling-short-of-having-it-all life to elaborate more on my thoughts about the Slaughter piece and how in my life I鈥檝e chosen a much different path鈥揳nd how any of us who can say we have 鈥渃hosen鈥� a particular and generally happy and satisfying path are very, very lucky.聽 (In general I thought the article was very insightful and that women were probably over-horrified in their reactions to the negative tone of the title of her piece.聽 I鈥檓 sure that like me, many women trying to have it all didn鈥檛 have enough time to read the article before reacting to it!)