|
|
4.14.2001 3:43 PM I think Angus has some devious plan up his sleeve with Yoshware. Sean Hackbarth | 3:41 PM Bill: libertarian weblogger and Britney Spears fan. Who'd have thunk? Sean Hackbarth | 4.12.2001 9:41 PM The Washington Post's Ken Ringle profiles Myron Magnet. Magnet wrote The Dream and the Nightmare, a book highly praised by President Bush. The fair profile allows Magnet to make his case that affecting culture can have a dramatic effect on poverty.
"The Hard Heart of Poverty" Sean Hackbarth | 5:22 PM AOL is your friend. AOL loves you. AOL will protect you. "You've Got Ambulance!" Sean Hackbarth | 4:55 PM Virginia Postrel on Washington, D.C. parochialism:
Sean Hackbarth | 4.11.2001 1:10 AM The workers' paradise of Maine will be forcing private businesses to pay women and men equally for unequal jobs. This is under the rubric "comparable worth." For example, a female registered nurse and a male janitor working in the same nursing home would have to be paid the same wage because they both "provide a service that is equally vital to the institution." The obvious question is who decides what services are "equally vital"? According to comparable worth advocates business owners and managers can't make those decisions based on the supply and demand of labor in their local communities because it's obvious that women would get the short end of the stick. But there are just too many variables in comparing workers in different fields: job experience; quality of work; promptness; quality of skill; etc. Seeing some government busybody trying to weigh every aspect of a job to determine its comparable worth is laughable. It reminds me of medieval scholastics debating the number of angels who could dance on the head of a pin. Then there is the question of whether women actually do get short changed in the workplace. Comparable worth advocates always throw out the claim that women only make 70 cents for every dollar a man makes. (Tell that to my aunt who does consulting work for a six-figure salary and her accountant husband who doesn't make quite that much.) But just comparing women to men fails to take into account differences in work experience, education, and whether the woman is a mother or not. If you take these factors into consideration, the wage gap shrinks. Childless females between 27 and 33 years old make 98% as much as similarly aged males. This conclusion from the data suggests to Patricia Hausman that "it is not being a woman, but being a mother, that causes noteworthy differences in earnings." So, instead of letting individuals work out the messy details of determining how much people should be paid in the workplace, the government must move in and make those decisions instead. While that may make comparable worth cheerleaders' hearts warm over their political victory, there will be unintended consequences. Those can't be avoided. What will they be? If anyone knew, then they wouldn't be call "unintended." One possibility could be increased unemployment (especially of lower skilled females). Another could be slower economic growth. Another could be businesses (and jobs) moving from Maine to states without comparable worth laws. Regardless of the possible negative affects, what comparable worth does is prevent employers from experimenting and trying out various possible pay scales for their employees. That creatvitity is stifled. "Maine Becomes First State Requiring Pay Equity" Sean Hackbarth | 4.9.2001 2:05 PM UK researchers find that adult stem cells may be better at healing stroke victims than stem cells taken from embryos. "We expect that stem cells will prove far safer and more flexible for repair of brain damage than primary fetal cells," said Dr. Helen Hodges. "Stem Cells More Effective Than Those From Aborted Babies" Sean Hackbarth | 4.8.2001 12:19 AM China should get no apology for playing bumper cars at 30,000 feet. For weeks, Chinese planes have been playing a dangerous game in the skys of the South China Sea. That Chinese pilot flew a more manuverable aircraft and should have stayed safely away from the the U.S. plane. But if the Communist Chinese really want to play the apology game, then I expect one from them for their inhuman treatment of Christians and the Falun Gong. I also want an apology for the Tiennemen Square massacre and the savage abuse given to Tibet. "U.S. Refuses To Apologize to China" [via Drudge] Sean Hackbarth | |
ABOUT When I'm not pondering the fate of the universe, I'm reading, writing, or selling books. Here you'll find comments on politics, culture, books, and music. Not necessarily in that order. MAILBOX sean--at--theamericanmind.com  Support democracy and human rights in Iraq! 
My Bloginality is INTP!!! WEBRINGS « LibertyLoggers » < ? wiscoblogs # > WEBLOGS WIRES AP International AP National AP Politics AP Sports UPI COLUMNISTS Buckley Goldberg Kudlow Novak Horowitz Noonan Reynolds Sowell Will NEWSPAPERS Ha'aretz LA Times Milwaukee Journal Sentinel NY Times Washington Post Washington Times MAGAZINES The American Prowler The Atlantic City Journal Commentary Enter Stage Right First Things FrontPage IntellectualConservative.com In the National Interest National Review New York Times Magazine Opinion Journal Reason Spintech The Weekly Standard NEWS 1stHeadlines ABCNews BBC CNN Cybercast News Service Drudge FoxNews MEMRI MSNBC BOOKS All Consuming The New Republic New York Times Town Hall Book Club Washington Post Weblog BookWatch TECH News.com Wired News HUMOR Mallard Fillmore The Onion ARCHIVE 
Comments by: YACCS template by HELQUIN
|