Posted on 06/07/2003 12:30:30 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
The reason women entered the work force was World War II. The fact of the matter is, the shortage of men needed to arm our troops required women to take their places in the factories. It is not women that caused wages to go down. The fact is wages have not gone down. … Sorry, guys, but on this point, Vox Day has been slam-dunked. And by a woman. Oh the shame of it!
– Jill
Get that bovine byproduct outta here (sound of KG smacking a ball into the fifth row)! Jill has her facts wrong. As she mentioned, there was a labor shortage during World War II, so clearly the women who entered the work force then couldn't have affected the wage rate, since they were replacing the men who were away fighting. From 1950 to 1998, women's participation in the work force rose from 33 percent to 59.8 percent, and is projected to peak at 61.9 percent in 2015. Real wages did not drop immediately, but they peaked in 1973 and have declined since then.
Why did wages not peak sooner? I was puzzled by this until I dug a little deeper into the labor statistics. It turns out that at the same time women began entering the labor force in significant numbers, men started leaving; in fact, the percentage of men working has fallen 11 percent since 1950 and is expected to fall a further 6 percent in the future. Is this because men can't compete with women? That's possible, but it's more likely that older men are simply taking the opportunity to retire and collect Social Security, as most of the men who've dropped out are the 65-and-older crowd, whose labor participation has fallen from 45.8 percent to 16.5 percent. So, it seems that women are working primarily in order to fund the retirement of old men – maybe there is a Patriarchy after all!
Now, I will readily admit that this is a gross simplification. There are many other factors involved, including immigration, taxation, inflation, the shift from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, globalization and the abandonment of the gold exchange standard. But it would be almost impossible for a virtual doubling of the labor supply to have zero impact on its price – I can't imagine that anyone with a knowledge of even the most basic economics would seriously attempt to argue that.
Vox Day … sums up with what may be the most immortal paragraph of the generation. "It's hard to know exactly how the imperial dollar will die. It is possible that the gold-backed Islamic dinar may replace the dollar as the global trading standard or that China or the European Union may seize the moment to offer the world a stable replacement currency. What I do know is that no amount of economic stimulus, be it tax cuts, spending increases or interest-rate cuts, will allow America to avoid paying the piper for four years of spectacularly ill-timed malinvestment. The party is over. Prepare yourself."
The only dispute I have with Mr. Day is his calculation that we have had only four years of "spectacularly ill-timed malinvestment." Looking at my watch, I figure that it is close to almost 50 years, as it took that long to run up a deficit of the newly-discovered $44 trillion dollars of un-funded, un-thinking, un-economic, un-common sense, and ultimately un-payable commie-think idiocies.
– The Mogambu Guru
I won't argue with the Mogambu Guru. First, he knows far more about markets and the economy than I do, and second, it's downright dangerous! If you don't read him, you really must. I'm flattered beyond words to learn that he reads this column.
Women's accomplishments may not be in the same areas as men, but they still should be considered noteworthy and of value … (list of female artists from the Bronte sisters to Alice Walker, including Amy Grant and Madonna).
– Carol
Women absolutely must be valued, as they are the civilizing force of society, indeed, without women society would barely exist. But under no circumstances should anyone attempt to equate the works of Alice Walker with those of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, or favorably compare the musical accomplishments of Madonna with Mozart, or even, for that matter, William Orbit. A desire to be valued is quite understandable, and women have surely earned the right to be respected for their very real contributions to humanity, still, this does not justify ludicrous comparisons of artistic worth; to do so only causes one to question a woman's judgment, if not her sanity. I love Ministry, but I would never suggest that "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" is an aesthetic masterpiece worthy of the same regard as the Brandenburg Concertos.
I must say you caught my attention, looking beyond the hair-cut, a very handsome man. … I do not think I need a man, but you sure would be one I'd love to learn from.
– Nancy
Hark, what's that I hear? Ah, yeah, it's feminists across the country losing their breakfasts. Thanks very much, Nancy, but I have three words for you. Dorothea and Casaubon. Learning and love don't mix well, and furthermore, I'm off the market.
99% of most wives annual wages, are less than the annual amount paid in taxes by the family, fed income tax, state income tax, social security employee donation, social security employer donation, sales tax, property tax, car tax, city tax, school tax, etc.
Add up all of your taxes that you pay each year, and then compare it to the average wives salary.
In the 1940's and 1950's, women worked for other reasons, they worked for MONEY!!!!
In the 1940's and 1950's women who worked, actually raised their standard of living. The tax paid by the average famliy in the 1940's and 1950's was very little, with social security being only $100 per year total, few families paid any federal income tax, and even less paid any state income tax. Property taxes were very low, most city and county budgets were kept under control, and governement employees, including teachers and police were not getting rich back then, they acutally were paid like the "servants" they are.
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