Housework As Intangible Property Value?

avatar

Times are changing, every day we see something that was unimaginable a century or a decade ago. For example, we can order everything from home, get it delivered to our doorstep and pay for it without cash being involved. A robot can do the cleaning while we're doing something else, a washing machine can do the washing, dishes also can be washed using a dishwasher and this is just a beginning as in a few years these things will be outdated, something new is going to be implemented. That's called development.

iron635619_1920.jpg
Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay

There are works that are and always has been done for free, the person doing it never get paid and it's just free labor. It's been taken for granted, every woman has to do the housework for free, in some countries the wife has to take care of the husband's parents as well. Obviously there are exceptions. Rich or well off families can hire a maid to get the job done, or an entire crew, from maids to cooks and gardeners, pool cleaners to do all the work that a household need. The bottom line is, these works are paid.

A Chinese court ruled in a divorce case that a wife should get about $7,700 from her husband in compensation for five years of housework. That’s about $128 a month, or 10,000 yuan a year. source

This is unprecedented, has never happened before in China and it was only possible because on 28 May 2020, the Congress of China adopted the new Civil Code effective from 1 January 2021.

The ruling has caused an online debate about whether the amount established by the court is fair or not. Being a European, I can't comment on the fairness of the amount, I have no idea if it's a lot of very little, but with this ruling, the court has created a precedent that can be used in further cases.

I'm a little bit surprised by this ruling. Not because I think it's unfair though, but because it has happened in China, a communist country, heavily controlled by the government, where human rights are not a priority, the nation's interests always come first and any individual can be sacrificed for the greater good.

In this case, the wife’s household work counted toward intangible property value.

Intangible property, also known as incorporeal property, describes something which a person or corporation can have ownership of and can transfer ownership to another person or corporation, but has no physical substance, for example brand identity or knowledge/intellectual property. It generally refers to statutory creations such as copyright, trademarks, or patents. It excludes tangible property like real property (land, buildings, and fixtures) and personal property (ships, automobiles, tools, etc.). In some jurisdictions intangible property are referred to as choses in action. source

In this case the judge had a 5 year period to evaluate the value of the intangible property for, but not all marriages end after five years. What's happen if there's a case in which the divorce happens after 20 years? Will the husband be ordered to pay for 20 years? Moreover, is the wife obliged now to pay income taxes? Most likely as it's income, traceable and will be traced as court orders must be respected, otherwise penalties must be paid.

Looks like this new Civil Code puts much more emphasis on the sustainable development and protection of the environment, which is a very good thing and was much needed. China has neglected to protect its environment, or should I say has sacrificed the environment on the altar of development.

Times are changing and things are also changing, even if the process is slow in some countries. It's a start.


presearch

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta



0
0
0.000
7 comments
avatar

i even have no idea how the that kind of rule works here in my country. But i do know that most of the law in my country has not been updated from decade ago. and some of them are still from the colonial era. so slow isn't it?

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

0
0
0.000
avatar

I don't know in which country you are based in, but I've never heard of such thing to be honest. However, I'm a woman and am not against it :)

Yeah, laws need to be revised constantly and updated.

!ENGAGE 20

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you for your engagement on this post, you have recieved ENGAGE tokens.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I think it´s only fair for female homemakers to be compensated somehow. So hear me out, Women still are the one´s who do most of domestic labour even when she also working in these modern times.

It´s a fact that because of this, it tends to result in lost of potential earnings, like for example when the woman takes time off to care for children if she even returns to her old job, even if she doesn't have kids she still ends sacrificing a potential career since A lot of time she takes on less hours or part time job to be able to compensate for this resulting in a lower salary and difficulty in getting promoted.

But if she´s the housewife instead of working that means one less source of income which might put some families in a precarious financial position, since nowadays you practically need two incomes just make ends meet.
Another crazy thing is that society, heck the economy does rely on housework.

After all homemakers are the ones raising the next generation of productive members not to mention the ones making sure that male employees get one of time and get fed etc...
There was actually a women´s strike during the 70´s in Iceland. You read about it here
That day women stopped doing women´s work for a day in which society to went to a stop.

I fully believe that housework is still work and compensating it helps balance the inequality that women have to face specially when comes to gender roles

Another better alternative would be for men to start in droves to push for equal division of domestic labour, themselves doing also part of that work, which chances are probably not gonna happen in our lifetimes, so monetary compensation is the next best thing.
I don´t know if just getting compensation with a divorce is the ideal and I would probably prefer if happened in another way, but I think glad that there is at least some knowledge of it important and that some steps are being taken.

Sorry if it´s to complex. I just think that society tends to devalue women´s work, and it something that we need to talk about.

Posted Using LeoFinance Beta

0
0
0.000