very, very good stuff. So, back away from your keyboard very carefully and slowly; particularly if you're at work! 
How many of you gents remember working your very first day at your very first job? For me I think I must have just turned 17, and I got a job at McDonald's. I spent 3 hours having this nice old lady from Kenya teach me how to cook eggs and sausages. I was miserable. The next day I told my manager that I thought I should probably be working fewer hours. He chuckled and walked away. It wasn't before long I noticed that a lot of my co-workers were chuckling in my presence, but I didn't understand why. I got the courage up to ask that nice old lady from Kenya what they were laughing about and she said in her thick Kenyan accent, "oh, Willy! It's because you suck at this!"
I was devastated and humiliated. I told my dad that I was thinking about quitting my job. He wanted to know why. I told him it's because everyone at work laughs at me and thinks I suck. My dad grinned and said, "that's probably because you do suck." I asked him what should I do? He said, "well, you could try not sucking at it."
I was reminded of this important life lesson when I saw this campaign ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewsy5CItEM8
Kathleen Matthews, who's a Democrat who's running for Congress in Maryland, says, "Imagine paying 20% more for a cup of coffee just because you're a woman. So why does Congress think it's okay that women get paid 20% less than a man for doing the same job."
It seems that some on the left are shifting their language a bit. Instead of talking about "pay equality", they're beginning to talk about "pay equity." "Equity" is an interesting choice, because it's meaning differs in a significant way from "equality".
Dictionary.com defines "equality" as:
1. the state or quality of being equal
It defines "equity" as:
1. the quality of being fair or impartial; fairness; impartiality
One might wonder if it's humanly possible to impose, i.e. mandate by law, that everyone acts with impartiality in the workplace. And is it really necessary? If the *quality* of your labor is better than your co-workers then why would your employer pay you 20% less than everyone else? Whatever happened to my dad's advice?
Inky, the Octopus didn't wait for Congress to pay a law. Inky was a Octopus who was stuck in an aquarium and Inky had just about enough of that shit. So he took matters into all 8 of his arms. One night a maintenance worker didn't shut his tank all the way, and Inky climbed up his tank, pushed the lid so he could escape, and despite not being able to breathe in the air, he got out of his tank and walked across the floor, made his way to a drainage pipe, and went down that drainage pipe until he made his way all the way back home in the Pacific Ocean.
The moral of the story is that determination and self-reliance is all you really need in life. Waiting for Congress to fix your problems is like waiting for Godot. You're better off fixing them yourself, just like Inky did.
-- Modified on 4/13/2016 6:50:33 PM
Have you finally seen the light and realized that not all workers are created equal and that some people earn their money while others are simply a blight on society? This of course applies to everyone from quad who is mopping the floors to the biggest bigshot CEO
For instance, I believe in the right of self-defense and the 2nd Amendment, but I'm damn glad my parents never had to buy a tank to keep the Ruskies off the front lawn. But it's undeniable that some workers contribute more to society than others. Some workers contribute quite a lot. Others contribute little. And there's even some who are a drain on a society. Those who wouldn't survive if it wasn't for the luxury they're afforded by living in a first world industrialized nation. It's a harsh aspect of reality, but those unfortunate enough to have been born with mental or physical disabilities would not be able to survive if it wasn't for the hard work of others who helped build and maintain a civilization that can afford to care for their needs. Human beings are the only species on the planet that is afforded the luxury of dying of natural causes. It's absurd that we take this for granted. Or to rip off a Lewis Black joke, if it wasn't for civilization, you would wake up with bears eating your feet.
It seems, if my memory is correct, when Willy pipes up here, there's usually a woman, or women involved. And, his negative feelings about any power they may have, which he lacks, are at it's core. It's better camouflaged this time, but It's hilarious to think that his inferiority feelings, regard women, may make him change from his 'socialist/communist way.'
This is most definitely one of those times.
Willy most definitely has issues with women, enough so that he forgets all about his socialist/communist ways and all of a sudden he believes that the workplace should be a merit based system. I wonder if he is typing this from his cushy government job while trying not to get caught by his female supervisor?
....but we shouldn't forget that it wasn't that long ago that we did too. A few years back I began to ask myself "why are things the way they are?" Human beings are animals, and a truly remarkable species at that. This means that the evolutionary pressures that shaped us must have also been truly remarkable. While it's not very hard to accept that our biology has an evolutionary origin, what's difficult to sometimes grasp is that our behaviors have an evolutionary origin too. This would mean that even the products of our behaviors, like our government, our economy, and all our other institutions, all face the same evolutionary pressures. Even culture is determined by it. Culture cannot exist without biological agents first acting to create it.
For instance, I may personally be pro-choice, but there are many people who are not. Why are they not? What drives them to feel this way? You can easily dismiss this and say, "oh, they're just Bible thumping idiots", but that's a cop out. But unlike what some religious folk may claim, the bible didn't fall out of the sky. The bible was written by men. And those men said very little about abortion. The Catholic church didn't even weigh in on the subject for the first 1500 years of it's existence. What changed? Think the Plague that wiped out a third of Europe might have had something to do with it?
Sun Tzu said to know your enemies, know yourself. But you don't need to be enemies with someone to be mindful what why they feel the way they do and what motivates them. Thinking about this can only increase your capacity to be empathetic towards others, to care about other's well-being.
very, very good stuff. So, back away from your keyboard very carefully and slowly; particularly if you're at work!
And besides--wasn't your first job in the chocolate factory? lol
The only way people are equal is in their humanity. Everyone is equally human. No one is more a human being than anyone else. And no one is less a human. And we all respect that.
In every other regard, no one thinks in term of being equal. We usually think in terms of excelling and avoid those who seem to fail. Right
Part of the problem, perhaps, is you've been sheltered too much. I was mowing lawns as soon as I could push a mower. Painted and help build houses, washed cars at a car dealer, picked apples, baled hay, all be before I got my first social security card at age 12. Need it to work on a truck farm, kneeling in the muck all day weeding onions. I learned at a very early age, there are hard workers, and there are those who just try getting by by doing as little as possible. When I was in the service, my experience was that about 80% of the work was done by 20% of the people. And, protestation was the normal response when a new task was required.
The bottom line is, everyone wants to be treated fairly. Someone who works hard views what that means differently than someone who doesn't. But, there is no way the unfairness of the lazy can be adjusted through wage compensation other than, firing the person or not promoting them.
Now, with all that being said, what does what you have to say having anything to do with what women should be paid in relationship to men?
"The moral of the story is that determination and self-reliance is all you really need in life. Waiting for Congress to fix your problems is like waiting for Godot. You're better off fixing them yourself, just like Inky did."
I disagree with your first statement. I think they are required. But, more is needed also. One great thing about growing up in a small town, I never had to go looking for a job. I family member or friend would hook me up with a better paying opportunity. And, it's true even today when it comes to my business. I know some much depend on family so much, but friends. Anyone who knows a good business man or woman, knows they have a wide circle of friends. P.S. I started my own business, because I know that, often times, the rules are unfair. Sitting around and bitching about them is pointless.
I can agree with your second statement. But, didn't we all know that already!