About that leave

I’d like to thank Jeannine Sato for her Feb. 16 Point of View piece on expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act for laying out the perfect argument for abolishing the FMLA.

While her nonprofit, government-funded company skirted the law, her husband's for-profit unregulated company did the right thing. It may be surprising that companies actually do want to make a profit, and this shows why profit can be a better regulator than government.

I’m sure her husband’s company was sympathetic to his cause and felt a need to help him out. However, I would guess the larger motivator was that it wanted to retain a good employee who would help it to continue to be successful. You see, profit is not such a bad thing.

As we all know, money for government programs comes out of people’s pockets. Some programs are good, others are debatable. In the case of the FMLA, the people who choose to stay home and raise their children effectively end up paying for those who try to obtain the “best of both worlds.”

Craig Pedersen

Cary