The Luxury of Being Able to Take It for Granted
What if the United States enacted policies that supported people’s financial well-being and that were so clearly the right thing to do that people took them for granted?
Hello, Talking About Money Community, I am sending positive vibes your way. 😎
To begin this post, I would like to make a statement: I love libraries.
Being the cheapskate frugally minded goddess that I am, I truly love my local public library. I love that with my little red plastic library card, the world is open to me. I can take out piles of hardcover books and return them when I am finished reading them. I can use my little red card to get discounts and freebies at Boston’s local museums and tourist attractions (you want me to pay $25 to get into the Museum of Fine Arts when my library card gets me in for $10? I’ll take the discount, thank you very much).
On top of the books and the museum passes, years ago when my children were young, we went to our local public library for the free entertainment: Story hours, puppet shows, petting zoos. Once I attended a salary negotiation workshop for women (for the tips, and to spy on the instructor’s teaching skills – sorry not sorry). I’ve gone to my library to pass the time during a heat wave (have I mentioned that I don’t have central AC in my house?). All in all, I love my local public library.
But do I wax nostalgic on it – like I just did – all the time? Truth be told, no, I do not. I tend to take it for granted that my library is there for me when I need it. Because I live in America, and in America we have public libraries.
While I have the luxury of taking for granted my local public library, there are policies that I do not take for granted. And for those of us who have been born and bred in the good ol’ US of A, we might not even dare to dream about policies that other countries take for granted, policies that would make our lives so much easier and lead to our enhanced financial capability.
Along those lines, over the years I have had the fortune of hearing about (and once, benefitting from) social policies that other countries take for granted. Want to hear about them? Let’s go.
First up, free 24-hour dental care
Did you read that title twice? I myself read it twice, and I was the one who typed it! This is the government service that I really did benefit from. Here’s what happened:
Back in 2000 I had a short-term consulting gig in the tiny Baltic country of Latvia, where I was supporting local officials in their attempts to encourage long-term residents to apply for Latvian citizenship. During my last week in country, I went out to dinner with a colleague to a pizza restaurant in capital city of Riga. After weeks of beets and potatoes, this was a treat! What was not a treat was the moment when I bit down and felt my crown fall off! As I am quite vain, I became somewhat panicked at my predicament. It was 9:00 in the evening, I had official meetings the following day, and I was suddenly missing a piece of my tooth!
My calm colleague – who was living in Riga at the time – recalled that there might be a dental clinic nearby. But at night? There was no way that I would find someone to glue my tooth back on at this late hour. My colleague approached our waiter to inquire and sure enough, the 24-hour dental clinic was within walking distance of the pizza restaurant. 24 hours!
I arrived at the clinic and saw that they had equipment that looked to be about 15 years old (not bad) and met a kind dentist who spoke English (even better!). Within the hour I had my crown glued on and I was stable enough to head home for a permanent dental repair job.
Once I got back to Boston I reflected on my experience: A 24-hour dental clinic that took no payment and simply repaired my tooth! It was like a mirage. I looked around locally to find out if somehow, I had missed knowing about my local 24-hour dental clinic. No dice. No 24-hour dental clinic in Boston.
In preparing for this post, I looked to see if the dental clinic I went 20 to years ago had a website. While I found a couple of 24-hour dental clinics in Riga (still, 24 hours!), I did not find any that claimed to be free. Did I hallucinate this experience? What a wonder…
Second, low-cost college
Many years ago, in a land far away, I studied Spanish at a language school in San Jose, Costa Rica (please don’t be too impressed – to this day my best Spanish comes out in airports, hotels, and restaurants). I lived with a host family consisting of a woman and her aging mother, as my host had studied English in California before pursuing her career as a scientist. I went to school by day and navigated being a guest in a local family’s home by night, discussing the evening meal and the plot lines of Mexican soap operas with my temporary “abuela.”
As a 20-something fresh out of grad school and about to embark on a decade of student loan repayment, I asked about the universities in Costa Rica and their cost. “Oh no,” I was told, “the public universities in Costa Rica almost free. Once you get in you do not have to pay very much.” Wait now, what? The public university system in Costa Rica was both well-regarded and low-cost? You could receive a high-quality education and have little to no debt to show for it? This blew my mind.
And this is in fact, true. The public university system in Costa Rica is quite affordable: For an average undergraduate course load of 17 credit hours per semester at the University of Costa Rica, you’ll pay around $2,800 in tuition per year, plus living expenses. What would it look like if you could get a solid education at an American public university and graduate virtually debt-free? Think of how much easier your first decade into the work world would be…
Third, ample paid parental leave
One of my dear friends married a man from Madrid and moved there to set up her life and raise a family. When she had her kids, she was given four months of paid leave from the Spanish government. If she had decided to extend her leave (at this point unpaid) to up to a year – a policy called Excedencia sin Sueldo – her job would have been held for her. Furthermore, Spain has another policy called Reducción de Jornada, where working mothers are entitled to work reduced hours up until their child is eight years old. This is how mothers in Spain are supported when they have their babies!
While I was happy for her and her ability to get paid while bonding with her babies, to be honest I was a bit stunned. Those of you who are parents know this story:
When I had my first child, I was coming off a contract job, so I had no parental leave, paid or otherwise (nor did I have a job to return to). It was up to me and my savings account to keep my portion of the household afloat. My husband took two weeks of vacation time to bond with each of our newborns, and then headed back to the office. While at the time I simply accepted it, now I am aghast that most workers in the United States are left with no support when they become parents. Simply aghast…