The Democratic Debate, Men and the Wage Gap


The one take-away I got from tonight’s Democratic debate was that if you are a woman, an illegal alien (which, for some reason, the Democrats persist in calling immigrants) or a member of the LGBT community you are down with the Democratic Party.

The best I could figure, we are going to provide free education, free health care, free dope and a get-out-of-jail-free card to everyone who self-selects as an American.  This bill (estimated at $15 trillion dollars a year, by the way) is going to be paid by the ever popular “…tax on the wealthy.”  [Check the definition of wealthy, by the way, because that means the income of two people, working 40+ hours a week, and making better than $100K/year.  If you are a teacher and your husband a fire fighter, you are part of the wealthy and better plan on paying for all those freebies.] 

But I digress.

            What I really want to talk about is the one group who seem to be of absolutely no interest to the people on the CNN stage.  I am speaking, of course, about men; the only group it is still fashionable and acceptable to hate in this country. 

Anyone who reads this blog knows that while I dearly love men I am totally incapable of understanding them.  I am 13 months away from 70 years old, and the best I have been able to figure out is that a penis must be a heavy piece of equipment to carry around.  But, God bless their complexity, I love men.  That is why it pains me to reveal the following piece of information.

The average man, working a full-time job in the middle of the middle income category earned $50,383 in 2014.  The same man in the same job in 1973 was earning $53,294!  Adjusted for inflation, men’s salaries were higher 40 years ago than they are now!  Women, on the other hand, have been working steadily upward, increasing their wages for middle income jobs by about 30%. 

Men, the group no one on the Democrat stage gave a damn about, are earning less.  I see a problem with that.   While I am all for better pay for women—at least those who deserve better pay—I am not for advancing one group over another for any reason as superficial as gender.   

            There are lots of reasons offered for this drop in male wage earning, though none of them are supported by anything other than popular conjecture.  We do know that US productivity has doubled since 1973, yet the wages of males have stagnated.  We know that some worker compensation was been coming in the form of benefits, which do not show up as salaries (but certainly have monetary value).  We know that labor’s share of national income has been declining since 2000, but that still leaves 27 years of male wage stagnation that are unaccounted for. 

            Is it possible that male wages are declining because it is not fashionable to pay top dollar for a man who does a good job?  A competent white male certainly doesn’t get you a federal contract when Congress has mandated a company owned by a trans-sexual, Native American female with a limp.

            I have one question.  When we negotiate treaties with other nations, do they send their best, or do they send an equal representation of every segment of their population, whether or not they have one freaking clue?

            That’s what I thought.

Are men going to vote in mass in this election?  Are they going to vote for the party of excellence or the party of accommodation?  I hope they keep the faith. 

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