Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Wild Hoss]

No, it isn't. It's a symptom of political correctness, which traces its roots to Marxism in academia.

The Dixie Chicks would be fascinated to learn this.

[Mike]

Support the troops, Hoss!!

[Mike]

I didn't know! Where's a good executive summary?

I don't have the time at the moment find the studies I've read. The UM one was specific to gender pay at UM among profs and the difference was about 2%. Here's a link that offers a quick overview of where the problem with the pay gap claim lies.

The 23% "gap" is simply the difference in what all men working full time make and what all women make. It has nothing to do with people working the same jobs.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/01/no-women-don-t-make-less-money-than-men.html

[drok]

The college major argument is bogus. Sure, the college majors that make the most money are full of men, and so that explains the wage gap. But the real question is why are those majors dominated by men in the first place? Are woman not smart enough to be engineers? No. So there are other social pressures that result in less women completing degrees that result in higher pay.

[hack]

Does that make it a bogus argument or an alternative explanation?

Thanks Mike. It's always amazing how durable misinformation is.

[drok]

I don't think it's actually explaining anything though. It's highlighting what the question should be...why are woman not entering those college majors? The different "life choices" is a lazy reason and just makes you ask, why are they "making" different life choices.

[entropy]

No, it isn't. It's a symptom of political correctness, which traces its roots to Marxism in academia.

you are both right.. but mass communication, like twitter, has made the beast easier to feed

[Hannibal]

The college major argument is bogus. Sure, the college majors that make the most money are full of men, and so that explains the wage gap. But the real question is why are those majors dominated by men in the first place?

Because it's what women choose. God knows they aren't being discouraged from going into STEM fields and if anything the employers in these fields bend over backwards to get women into them nowadays.

[Prime2]

Bending women over backwards?

Been there, done that.

[hack]

Everyone believes you.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Reading Nixonland right now...a very dense book. All about politics in the mid-60's through early 70's. Nixon's obviously the key figure but it's much more than just a bio of him.

Anyways, I brought it up because I saw comments earlier about pitting working class/poor whites against blacks...that's brought up quite a lot in the book. The conservative movement in the late 60's in general but the Nixon campaign in particular really pushed the idea to destroy FDR's New Deal Coalition by convincing poorer whites that all civil rights gained by blacks in the 60's came at THEIR expense. And obviously that worked. Thousands of angry white people fled the Democratic Party to follow George Wallace or join the Republicans.

[hack]

Harper's pubished an essay years ago on the propaganda long game that was excellent. I forget the title.

[Dr. Strangelove]

China's market has already suspended trading for the day as it's crashing so badly.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Even Saudi Arabia bombing an Iranian embassy can't get the oil price to rise

[edindetroit]

Low oil prices? There must be an election coming up.