Married women are increasingly the breadwinners in their families, and are basically the only reason that median incomes in the US have risen at all in the last 45 years.
Among married women who are working, 24 percent earn more than their husbands compared to only 7 percent in 1970.
No word on how many of the 24% were strippers.
I guess women getting close to pay equality with men is a pretty damn bad thing and in no way demonstrates economic progress, right, Stevie-girl. Do you think at all before you post this stuff? Didn't think so!
Excellent book, Stiffed, the betrayal of the American Man, by LA Times writer Susan Faludi.
Men have been stiffed because at the end of WWII they believed that we would be building a different type of world from what we had in the 1920's which caused the Great Derpesssion, and different from what the Fascist powers wanted.
But the military victory was sold out by the politicians who pushed America in the direction of Fascism.
So what this has come down to is a lack of real jobs, I mean jobs which involve doing something of social value, and then also getting paid a living wage for it.
See, a man won't want a job which is demeaning and humiliating.
Women on the other hand don't care, and Faludi explains this in graphic terms. For most women, just having any kind of a job makes them feel more independent than their mothers were. So they will take low paying and demeaning jobs, which a man would be ashamed to take.
Now unfortunately many men have been pandered to by reactionary voices, the Rush Limbaugh type, and they blame Feminism. They don't understand what Feminism even is.
The problem is just that corporate America does not need most labor. It can control the politics and the economy, while employing very few people, and keeping those few it does employ working in demeaning situations. The problem is not Feminism, it is Reactionary Politics, Corporatism, and Fascism.
Great topic @Steve!
SJG
Jim Crow Returns democracynow.org
@SJG...Have you read " The Mass Psychology of Fascism " by Wilhelm Reich? Never heard of him? Here's a clue.....
"Orgone Accumulator"----Hawkwind youtube.com
Yes, In Mass Psychology of Fascism Reich says that it all comes from authoritarianism in the family. This is how it looks to me. People try to take on the role of their own fathers, and they expect everyone else to go along with this.
SJG
Damn we are getting deep today.
I know several guys that are the soccer-mom's of the bunch, they stay at home and take care of the kids while the wife is the sole breadwinner. They're all losers...
Absolutely DOOMED!
Today zillions are financially pinned down by defaulted consumer debt, upside down mortgages, and child support payments in default. But tomorrow it will be college loans.
Still today, a huge percentage of the country lives only a paycheck or two from default on rent or their mortgage.
SJG
True that, SJG
@Dougster,
You spoke of biotech stocks as being forward looking. All they look forward on is the future of those companies, and nothing else.
The era of wide spread quality employment is gone. Now it is just those in and those out.
As far as the stock market, it is just pop. That is the multiplier factor. Used to be that for a company with average profitability, that the value of all the outstanding shares should be about 4x the annual gross.
Okay, but for startups believed to have high growth potential, the number could be higher. But during these bubbles like we have now the pop can be 30x, or more. And then there are high valuations on companies which aren't even in black ink. During the dot com bubble we had firms in red ink valued at over $1G.
Beyond a point it is just a Ponzi Scheme.
I hope things work out for these bio tech firms, but I certainly would not want to be using them to predict anything.
As for a young woman who sees that her chances of a good marriage are slim, she may very well start looking in the direction of a second occupation.
"Many really feel that their most effective valuable resource is their gender and therefore life as a masseuse, karaoke, or bar woman is a potential manner of earning an earnings sufficient to improve their oldsters, children, and different siblings back residence."
These strippers we talk about would not want their money in these bio tech stocks. They know that is just speculation. They know that they will only be young once and so if they can't get a good marriage, then they want a nest egg. And they are going to protect it by the most conservative of investments.
SJG
Most strippers I know bought property (as in investment property.) Someone will always need a home, even if ya got to section 8 it.
Very good point. Women are more conservative when it comes to money. I mean sure we all know those who waste it. But once she realizes that she is supporting herself, and not just waiting to be married, she will get real cautious. Often the main thing is the house.
One Latina stripper, a very well liked escort, said that I was a "Burro" looking for a "Pluta". This was not true. But the next week I told her that I don't use that kind of language. She apologized and then went on to explain about how she owns her own home. Not easy in this area. She was telling me that she is happy with her life.
Three different Viet AMP girls invited me to become a regular of theirs for home sessions. They were setting themselves up as escorts. That it would be in their home was a selling point as there would be no other costs. But it was also their own way of showing their pride.
For these Karaoke Girls it is supporting the family back home.
These are responsible people.
Remember during the 1988 election when Dan Quayle pointed at a help wanted sign in a Burger King and said, "See, I told you the economy was improving."
Sorry, that is not going to do it. This "whorification" @Dougster has named is here to stay.
SJG
Thanks for the lessons on how the markets "really" work, SJG. :-) skepticism like yours ought to keep them going.
Keep who and what going? Do you mean the markets? I think you can measure the unhealthy of our nation by how high the DOW and the Nasdaq are. I don't mean they should be at zero. During Bush 43's war run up, the Dow got down to what, 8,500, and maybe the Nasdaq 7000? Not sure. After the 1986 Reagan drop, people were proclaiming that the Dow would never again top 4000. Say the Dow got down to about 6000 and Nasdaq ( dealing with things intrinsically more speculative ) got down to about 7000, then I would say that that is health. The issues which make up the indices do have some value. It is not all hype. But much of it is hype, so we just have to learn to tune it out.
Remember this: amazon.com
People are always predicting ages of endless prosperity. Making such predictions is extremely lucrative. Believing in them is so intoxicating. But the fact is that our economic system, which caters to wants instead of needs, is extremely soft.
Usually the first thing to go is new car sales. After the dot com Ponzi bubble broke, the first thing to go were the BMW dealerships. The SJ Metro ran a cover proclaiming the end of the dot com boom, showing an overturned Porsche Boxter, with wads of VC money blowing all over the roadway.
The Great Depression started when the auto makers shut down. This is why it was so scary in 2008 when they shut down again. Perhaps 25% of our industrial labor force gets idled when there is a long auto maker shut down.
See, cars are a soft need. Cars will last as long as you keep maintaining them, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years. And besides you don't really need to have one at all.
But so much of our employment market depends on things like this. So we need to start recognizing this in our official policy, and stop pretending that we have much of labor market anymore.
How Wall Street Works and for Whom, Doug Henwood wallstreetthebook.com
SJG
Female economic progress = DOOM!
Great logic as always, Stevie-girl!
More proof by cherry picked headline about how lousy the economy is now and the logical leap that it will continue to be that way or get worse?
Well at least if you are putting all eggs in the argument by authority basket "businessinsider" may be astep above "dailysignal".