MEN DOING 100 MINUTES OF HOUSEWORK DAILY EXPOSES BIZARRE ECONOMICS OF DOMESTIC LABOR ACCOUNTING
American men contributing a "record-high" 100 minutes of daily housework gets celebrated like they've discovered fire, while women still do significantly more unpaid domestic labor.
But here's the purple cow: this data reveals how fundamentally broken our economic accounting systems are. GDP counts a maid service as economic activity but ignores the billions in unpaid labor keeping households functional. If we actually valued domestic work at minimum wage, it would add trillions to economic output.
Cities should pay attention because this hidden economy affects workforce participation, childcare demand, and tax revenue.
When dual-income households outsource domestic work, it creates entire service sectors. When they don't, it usually means one partner (guess which one) reduces paid work hours.
The real economic story isn't men doing slightly more dishes, it's how our failure to recognize domestic labor's economic value distorts policy decisions about everything from zoning for home-based businesses to public transit schedules.
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