David Colquhoun on BlueskyOct 2, 2023
"I was not considered faculty quality, because I didn’t have a first author publication in Nature and didn’t have an Ivy League education."
Katalin Karikó (Nobel prize) -yet another example of the stupidity of metrics
https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/leben/interview-top-scientist-katalin-kariko-women-should-have-a-career-and-a-happy-family-ld.2352504
Katalin Karikó: «Women should have a career and a happy family»

Scientist Katalin Karikó’s work didn’t get the attention it deserved until the start of the pandemic in 2020, when suddenly her area of expertise, mRNA, became the most important subject of research worldwide. From one day to the next, Karikó became the star of the scientific community. Today she looks back on why her research was not funded, advocates for new role models and explains why she didn`t give up her career for her family.

Aargauer Zeitung
Show threadDaniel LakelandOct 2, 2023

@david_colquhoun

I will say that the issue with giving up careers for children is not really gendered. I mean it's de-facto gendered because it's more common for women but it's absolutely not because they're women, it's because society is set up to make dual-worker families suffer. A HUGE component of that is the progressive tax code. It's provably mathematically impossible to treat both parents in a couple economically equally without a flat tax. Flat tax plus #UBI is the way to go.

Show threadAz VedeOct 3, 2023
@dlakelan flat vs progressive taxation has nothing to do with this. Tax deductions maybe only incidentally related. I feel like you didnt read the article
Show threadDaniel LakelandOct 3, 2023
@Azvede
I'm not sure what "this" is in your sentence, but what I was referring to was the specific issue of giving up careers for children. Progressive taxation makes it so if you have a middle class income coming from one parent, the second one going to work will be taxed at a marginal rate of about 50% where I live, that makes it financially suicide to have two incomes for many many people, esp. since you then buy childcare with after tax money.
Show threadAz VedeOct 4, 2023

@dlakelan hmmm, this seems entirely unrelated to the OP…

And my 2¢ is that either you don’t live in the US (and I therefore have no context for your situation) or you should seek out a tax professional…

Show threadDaniel LakelandOct 4, 2023
@Azvede
This issue absolutely affects US. A middle class family has marginal tax rate 25% ish federal, 5-10% ish state, and around 8% fica, 16% for self employed. Overall this leaves you somewhere in the 40-50% marginal rate depending on specifics of where you live and what kind of job you do. Average rate for the first earner is much closer to 20-25% so second earner is getting taxed about double what the first earner does. That's the point of progressive taxes!
Show threadDaniel LakelandOct 4, 2023
@Azvede
But the problem is just one of the many issues brought up by the original article. I just focused on it because I've seen this affect multiple people with high academic achievement. I personally know 3 men with PhDs, and 3 women with CS, physics, or architecture degrees, MS or high end BS from private universities who are not in the labor force because it's just not financially worthwhile if you have kids.
Show threadDaniel Lakeland
@Azvede
Specifically I was referring to this section in the article where she says "This is also a problem because of the low salary of scientists. If a family does not earn enough to hire a nanny, female scientists will give up their profession. "
Oct 4, 2023 at 10:49amWeb
Show threadDaniel LakelandOct 4, 2023
@Azvede
It's not just about low salaries. It's also about very high marginal tax rates on second earners. You can make $100k in the US and still can't really afford to work, after $45k goes to the government and $45k goes to the nanny, you work your ass off for $10k a year. Most people won't do that.