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NYT: A Paid Hour a Week for Sex? Swedish Town Considers It

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/...a-week-for-sex-swedish-town-considers-it.html

A local official in Sweden has a novel proposal to improve work-life balance and lift the local birthrate: give municipal employees an hourlong paid break each week to go home and have sex.

Sweden is already celebrated for its generous welfare state, including 480 days of paid parental leave, universal health care and a common ritual of coffee and pastry, known as fika, which is considered sacrosanct.

Per-Erik Muskos, a 42-year-old councilman from the northern town of Overtornea, wants to add to those benefits, by offering the municipality’s 550 employees the right to subsidized sex. In introducing his proposal this week, he told fellow members of the town council that it would give a nudge to the dwindling local population, add spice to aging marriages and improve employee morale.
Noting that “sex is also a great form of exercise and has documented positive effects on well-being,” Mr. Muskos suggested that local municipal employees could use an hour of the workweek already allotted for fitness activities to go home and have sex with their spouses or partners instead. The motion, which is expected to be voted on in the spring, needs a simple majority to be passed by the 31-member council. As of now, opinion on the council is divided.

“We should encourage procreation. I believe that sex is often in short supply. Everyday life is stressful and the children are at home,” Mr. Muskos explained in his motion in Overtornea, a town of about 4,500 in the picturesque and remote Torne Valley. “This could be an opportunity for couples to have their own time, only for each other.”

His proposal has generated praise, ridicule and criticism. Some critics fear single workers could while away their working hours on the dating app Tinder trying to find a date for their weekly interlude.

When Mr. Muskos introduced the motion on Monday, some council members giggled while others said they were not amused.

Mr. Muskos told colleagues the proposal was no joke, though he acknowledged practical problems like enforcement. It would be difficult to tell, for example, if an employee eschewed sex in favor of a walk in the country.

Malin Hansson, 41, a sexologist and specialist in reproductive health in Gothenburg, applauded the initiative, arguing that sex reduced stress, improved sleep and strengthened immunity, while enriching intimacy between couples. “If it was up to me, I would introduce this across the country,” she said, adding: “In Sweden, sex is considered just another activity.”

Lotta Dellve, a professor in the sociology department at the University of Gothenburg, said that her research showed that short bursts of physical activity during office hours had many benefits, including productivity. “This activity could include sex, why not?” she asked.

But Professor Dellve, who is married and has two daughters in their 20s, said it would be ridiculous for employers to mandate when employees should become intimate. “It is wonderful to see your spouse during the workday, but you don’t necessarily want to have sex,” she said.

Others were less persuaded.

Tomas Vedestig, 42, a left-leaning municipal councilman in Overtornea, said that when Mr. Muskos made his pitch, his colleagues were so taken aback that they thought they had misheard him. Mr. Vedestig said the proposal was intrusive and threatened to embarrass people who do not have sexual partners; do not want to have sex; or had medical conditions that precluded sex.

“I don’t think it’s the employer’s business to say, ‘Go home for an hour and make babies,’” he said. And some proponents worried the proposal was too stingy: “I spoke to a couple of older gentlemen who said, ‘One hour? That is not enough time.’”
 
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Nickle

Cool Facts: Game of War has been a hit since July 2013
Not sure why this is posted here, I don't know how this would impact any gaffers.
 

Stopdoor

Member
It'd be nice to be in government and this sort of decision is the most strenuous thing you have to worry about.

Weird.
 
Sweden sounds so glorious in contrast to UK/USA the majority of us are never gonna see anything outside of conservative and shit policy paving the way for an engorged neo fascist police state.
 

Weston

Member
480 days of parental leave? Man that sounds nice. My boss was bitching at me to come in 5 hours after my son was born.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
What a stupid idea. Do you have to fill out a report card or film yourself to prove you did indeed have sex? If you want people to have kids, find ways to lower the cost of life.
 

Keasar

Member
We have to replenish our lost population after last Friday's disastrous event where we lost up to 10 million of our inhabitants.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I think there is merit in scheduling the type of human activity that would happen anyway. You'd have a more honest assessment of your employees' work/life balance.
 

Gun Animal

Member
What a stupid idea. Do you have to fill out a report card or film yourself to prove you did indeed have sex? If you want people to have kids, find ways to lower the cost of life.

More expendable income doesn't motivate people to have kids unless there's either a material benefit to having children (free labor/support system) or a cultural/religious impetus. Why spend that money on children when you could buy a new car instead (or in GAF terms, 300 HTC Vives ducktaped together)
 

daffy

Banned
meh i mean once you count in walk time and clocking back in and out you may as well just squeeze one out in the bathroom
 
Mr. Muskos told colleagues the proposal was no joke, though he acknowledged practical problems like enforcement. It would be difficult to tell, for example, if an employee eschewed sex in favor of a walk in the country.

Defrauding the government by going for a walk instead of having sex. Truly, the weakest form of political insurrection yet devised.
 
Do they have to show a proof of having had sex? Dunno, if they consider it so important to health, they could hire sex workers (male or female) to employees who are single.
 

Gun Animal

Member
Here are my proposals for actually raising the birthrate in Sweden:
1. Remove child labor laws
2. State enforced Christianity (or islam if u prefer)
3. Pay women to stay at home and raise kids instead of working (or go the oppression route that worked for thousands of years and still does in the muslim world)
4. nuke the infrastructure and return to an agrarian lifestyle.

Other than that, accept that it's impossible for a secular, liberal (in the enlightenment sense), developed country to maintain a replacement birthrate, and work around it.
 

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
An hour? Some people wouldn't even get home by then.

Not to mention blah blah neogaf members lasting an average of 50 hours etc.
 

Sesha

Member
Maybe it's just me being a grumpy gus today, but this is might be the dumbest non-US-and-UK-related thing I've read all week.
 

Camwi

Member
I've got a two year old and a three month old.

That hour long break would probably just involve me holding the baby.

:(
 
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