This standard of human worth, that is, making it on one's own regardless of gender, age, or circumstance, is relatively new.... We deny our interdependence and conflate it with weakness. To be in need is to be needy. To be unencumbered is to be free. And to be free allows one to work excessively long hours. New economy employers play on this perverse sense of freedom through their preference for the zero-drag employee. In determining the best employees to hire, many employers calculate prospective hires' drag coefficient:

0 = best

1 point for a girlfriend or boyfriend

1 point for each 10 miles of commute to work

1 point for sick parents

1 point for each child

2 points for a spouse

Ilene Philipson,
Married to the Job,
pp. 183-4