The Myth of the Wage Gap Between the Sexes

     It is a wonder how out of touch with reality Democrat presidential candidates, et al are and still seem to garner support among the rank and file. Some things one will not hear from the Democrat cabal is the pathetic GDP growth this country has experienced over the last 7 years under Democrat guidance. A rate of growth in the U.S. economy that has struggled to reach 2%, when the post-WWII average has been 3.2% for the last 80 years. A participation in the labor force by working age adults that is at an almost 40 year low. And an explosion in food stamp participation and poverty unseen in this country since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And what are Democrats on the campaign trail concerned about? Wage inequality between men and women.
     Employers have been restricted by law since the mid-1960s from paying their female workers less than their male counterparts for the same work. Yet there has been several laws passed in recent years, most notably the Lilly Ledbetter Act, to address a non-existent problem. These laws have nothing to do with wage inequality experienced by women, and everything to do with Democrats codifying more opportunities for litigation for their supporters among the trail lawyers of this country.
     Those on the Left promulgating the notion that women make 70 cents for every dollar a man makes doing the same work is based on faulty "research." Primarily these studies all use 35 hours as a gage for full time work. But they do not distinguish between 35 hours and 50 hours for example. Both are considered full time. And since men in the same jobs work more hours than their female counterparts, they make more money. Women are more likely to work fewer hours because of maternity leaves, being primary caregivers to ageing parents, and taking off work to address issues with children.
     The other reality that the women-make-less-than-men crowd fail to acknowledge is that of the 10 college degrees with the lowest income potential, only one is dominated by men. And of the 10 college degrees with the highest income potential, only one is dominated by women. So women earn less than men, not because of some plot by business to devalue their contribution, but because they typically matriculate in professions that pay less. This reality is not considered by those who perform the studies that support the idea that women are paid less than men.
     Considering that any good businessman would take advantage of any cost-cutting opportunities he can, and if women were really paid 70 cents on the dollar to men, why would businesses not be totally populated by women workers? Of course a sensible question like that, and the statistics showing in some cases women making more than their male counterparts, does not advance the agenda of the Left and therefore are not considered. The Democrats' constituency group of plaintiff attorneys can not make much money suing businesses for paying too high of wages to women, and Democrat politicians can not make political hay from the truth that the wage disparity between the sexes does not exist.
    

Costco Removes America From Stores

     I am saying good-bye to my 7 year relationship with Costco, cutting up my card and mailing it back to them. I will miss the snacks, the lower prices on items from mouth wash to raisins. I will miss the clean stores and friendly and efficient employees. I will miss my weekly trip to Costco, but some things are just more important than getting a good price on a gross of sandwich bags.
     I had always known that Costco had a slight lean to the Left, this being obvious from their monthly magazine they mail to all their members. A magazine in which they push the radical "green" agenda, among other Leftist sacraments. But I ignored it because of the great price I was getting on frozen blueberries. But no more, Costco in the person of their founder, James Sinegal, has made my membership in the wholesale club a bridge too far.
     Mr. Sinegal ordered Dinesh D' Souza's book, America: Imagine the world without her, to be removed from sale in all his stores. His stated reason was that he was being a good Liberal by protecting his president. This pseudo book burning by the Left is nothing new, they often engage in keeping opposing viewpoints from public consumption because of their fear of them. The truth about this country's past does not support the group think of the Left, and it violates the tenets of their indefensible ideology.
     James Sinegal, like many Leftists in big business, have no great principled reason for supporting the glaringly failed presidency of Barack Obama, other than the ill-gotten gains of crony capitalism. Like all crony capitalists, Mr. Sinegal has benefitted his mega company with his cozy relationship with those in government, while advocating for policies that he knows would hurt his smaller competitors.
     The Affordable Care Act is one example of Mr. Sinegal's hypocrisy. He publically supported the new health care law while lobbying for and receiving one of the many exemptions handed out by the Obama administration like candy to compliant children. Knowing full well that the law would be a huge burden on his much smaller competitors, costing some of them their very businesses, Mr. Sinegal's support for the law was intended to give Costco the unfair advantage of government connections eliminating his smaller competitors.
     James Sinegal's removal of Dinesh D' Souza's book from his stores was a cowardly act practiced much too often by those on the Left because of a lack of courage in their convictions to stand against opposing views. Mr. Sinegal, as well as others on the Left, do not understand that truth exists outside the bounds of political battlefields. They see it as a malleable substance that can be molded, twisted, and shaped into whatever supports their political agenda at any given moment. This is the reason that Mr. Sinegal allows unionization of only certain locations and certain job descriptions within his company. He, like many in business, pay lip service to Leftist principles as a means of purchasing immunity from the normal demonization and criticism of big business by the Left.
     So good-bye Costco, I unlike you, have principles that gnaw at my conscience and inform me that the higher values that formed this great nation, like freedom of speech and open debate, are more important than getting a year's supply of toothpaste at a discount. Let it be known that by removing America from your stores, Mr. Sinegal, you have also removed at least this one American from them as well.