workfare and neglected housewives (cont)

there was an official reply from the ministry to the issue of neglected housewives in the workfare bonus scheme.. and the reply was standard and contributed to nothing new.. it is as good as 'we heard you, we know you are grumbling.. this is what has been decided and nothing can be done.' the explanation that housewives will get all the other top ups is like telling every citizen that they will get their top ups.. but it fails or refuse to deal with the issue of workfare bonus and the inequality of it.. neither does it want to talk about it.. the real issue is why are those men, who work half heartedly in odd jobs or part time jobs, be considered working and productive while full time housewives were not considered productive or interested in becoming economically independent and not relying on the charity of family or state.. and why are these men considered more worthy of a workfare bonus and not the housewives whose full time commitment and chores are more noble and with a real economic value? if no workfare bonus is declared for the menfolk, then there is no issue.. now there is a demeaning of the contribution of housewives to the economy.. and a kind of sneering that housewives are not worthy or less worthy than men who contributed half heartedly to the economy. what could have happened is that during the preliminary process of forumulating the workfare bonus, the whole issue of housewives was either forgotten or written off.. if it is the latter, and now with the outcry from many quarters, they cannot simply brush it aside and refuse to acknowledge a bad judgement on their part. if it is a case of being overlooked, there is still time to make some corrective recommendations to lessen the impact on a very angry housewife workforce.. unless it is considered that there is no need for damage control. all viewers are invited to www.redbeanforum.com to post their views.