Month: March 2010

A reader writes:

Author Warren Farrell, the only man in the U.S. ever elected three times to the board of directors for the National Organization for Women in New York City, wrote this article in 2006:

After more than a decade of research for my book, Why Men Earn More, I discovered that men and women make 25 work-life choices that actually create a wage gap. Men make decisions that result in their making more money. On the other hand, women make decisions that earn them better lives (e.g., more family and friend time). But what happens when women make the same lucrative decisions typically made by men? The good news — for women, at least: Women actually earn more.

Another writes:

"Dashed?" Yes, dashed. I'm a 37-year-old woman with a journalism degree from a top school and 19 years' experience in alt weeklies, a very specialized journo subgenre.

A few years ago, after a dozen years as a very-well-respected alt's senior editor and our editor-in-chief's right-hand gal, I began applying for editorships as they became available. I applied for a dozen; I didn't hear back once, not so much as a form letter. Then I won a national award, and immediately was being flown all over the country for interviews. In each case, I was the runner up, and in each case, they went with a (white) man who was the city editor for the local daily. Their leg up on me? They knew the market. My leg up on them? Guys who work for mainstream dailies have an absolutely ZERO understanding of the alt-weekly ethos.

In some cases I was told I didn't have enough experience (only 15 years at the time, with tons of responsibility and a track record of concrete achievements). In some cases, I was told they didn't think I'd be tough enough to fire people when warranted. Once, I was told I wasn't a good enough listener. Twice I was told I exhibited "too much confidence."

It's entirely possible I just don't interview well, and that I come across abrasively or as a know-it-all. But while there was for a while plenty of work for a workhorse like myself, I was absolutely shocked that in the 21st century, there still remained a big thick stupid glass ceiling. It really, really does exist, even in the most progressive of workforces.

Another:

The pay disparity is probably one of the reasons why middle-aged males have been so hard hit in this economy. If a company just looks at the bottom line, it will lay off the male and keep the female who both are doing the same work. It is not some perverse reverse discrimination nonsense; it is just downsizing strictly by the numbers. So I'm guessing the pay disparity will even out a bit during this recession. It will be interesting to revisit the pay disparity 10 years from now.

By a thousand stories. Cowen sizes up the problem:

[M]edia coverage may be a bigger issue than the size of the [unpaid mandate] fee. If national media run stories about people who avoid the mandate and prosper, the practice could spread.  Massachusetts media have not had the same power or influence.  Keep in mind also that "right-wing media" may promote this point for political reasons.

From the streets of Jacksonville, Florida.

"We call down God's power on our business leaders and the political leaders and community leaders. By all means we call down God's power on the media, particularly the Globe," – Bernard Cardinal Law, still in the curia and in good standing with the current Pope, in 1992, ten years before the abuse crisis really broke.

Compare his words with George Weigel's today:

In his native Germany, Der Spiegel has called for the pope’s resignation; similar cries for papal blood have been raised in Ireland, a once-Catholic country now home to the most aggressively secularist press in Europe. But it was the New York Times’ front page of March 25 that demonstrated just how low those determined to bring the Church down were prepared to go.

Derek Thompson interviewed Joe Mathews of the New America Foundation about the money the California marijuana initiative might raise:

"A billion was one estimate [if you combine the income from taxes and the money saved in policing and public health enforcement]. Nobody knows the answer to that question. I don't think there's any great data there. California has a strong recent history of making wildly optimistic assumptions about these kind of programs. Most prominently, Schwarzeneggar made a big deal when he came in about expanding Indian gaming to make money, that it would bring in billions. It's raised negligible amounts."

TNC imagines another life.

David Link:

I’m not staying up nights waiting for the Pope to apologize for his role in covering up – and I’d say offering tacit acceptance of – child rape by Catholic priests. As alcoholics and their loved ones know all too well, you can’t offer a sincere apology for something you don’t or can’t admit is a problem in the first place. Any apology from the Pope would be putting the cart before the horse. This isn’t a tragedy just of human frailty or even of bureaucratic self-preservation and corruption. The original sin here is doctrinal. The problem isn’t celibacy – or only celibacy – it’s the Church’s

cramped and careless view of nature, and specifically sexual nature.

The Church trumpets the notion that God has ordained sex only for procreation, and that God’s nature is itself being violated by every sexual act with any other intention; and even a correct intention isn’t enough if the act isn’t within a properly consecrated heterosexual marriage.  This is nature writ very small.

In contrast, the demand that priests be lifelong celibates is a decree to those who are merely human to defy nature itself.  What was originally crafted as a supreme sacrifice to God has turned into (if it has not always been) the institutional torture of human beings that plays out in these all too predictable everyday tragedies.  Yes, some priests don’t molest children.  Perhaps the Vatican is correct that the vast majority of priests are entirely innocent of the charge.

But if anyone believes the vast majority of priests is actually celibate, they certainly aren’t a vocal lot.   Any reasoned definition of nature must include human nature, which is what most Catholics obviously believe as they mock the Vatican’s mad directive about birth control.

"If someone asked me today, 'Ricky, what are you afraid of?' I would answer 'the blood that runs through the streets of countries at war…child slavery, terrorism…the cynicism of some people in positions of power, the misinterpretation of faith.' But fear of my truth? Not at all! On the contrary, It fills me with strength and courage. This is just what I need especially now that I am the father of two beautiful boys that are so full of light and who with their outlook teach me new things every day," – Ricky Martin, finally acknowledging the divine gift of his sexual orientation.

Calculated Risk warns that the big snowstorm and temporary Census work will inflate the upcoming report. Ryan Avent sees a possible silver lining:

The interesting question is whether this somewhat artificial gain might push the economy past a turning point an on to self-sustaining recovery. So far, renewed growth hasn't produced job gains, and so growth in spending has been constrained. Lack of customers has in turn limited the willingness of firms to add (or permanently add) new employees. New demand has been met with greater labour productivity rather than hiring, and the concern has been that as stimulus and housing market supports fall away, demand will flag and the economy will stall out.

But if a banner employment report or two convinces employers on the brink of hiring to pull the trigger, then a virtuous cycle might begin.

Felix Salmon's reflection on chasing page views and bloggy economics should be read by anyone in the business:

Blodget should remind himself on a daily basis that publishers make money by selling readers, not adspace, and that if he’s going to make money, he’s going to have to do so by getting high-value readers that companies want to reach. At the moment, both Blodget and his advertisers are stuck in an increasingly out-of-date paradigm wherein pageviews serve as a proxy for readers, but today, unless you’re Demand Media or the like, that paradigm is doomed.