Tioga Herald

Gender Wage Gap (Morning Joe, March 24, 2021)

Wish to solve the gender wage gap? There are solutions and a Federal minimum wage is NOT the answer. But does Professor Douglas Cornwell get the microphone on these analysis programs?

Ask a mother, now deceased, who owned a business back in the 1960s, about the damage done to small rural businesses when they are FORCED to pay the same wage which is paid in urban areas. This mother is no longer around to ask her. This woman was a Republican. Professor Cornwell, a Democrat today, sides with the Republicans and small business entrepreneurs with the idea of an across-the-board minimum wage, without considering the cost of living differences which impact ALL people, including female small business owners. Professor Cornwell has even spoken with a woman who owned a small business in URBAN Palm Beach County, too, and this woman is of the same mind as Professor Cornwell (common ground), even if Professor Cornwell got into an argument with this woman regarding Trump.

When listening to Morning Joe this morning, one recognizes talk ONLY about workers and no talk about those who run and lead small businesses in America. That sends a message that the only important people in America are those of the big corporate monopolies which were created by “free markets” and Reagan’s deregulation. These things and Professor Cornwell does NOT find common ground with Republicans. There may be no common ground with Kevin “Joe” McCarthy and his irrational approaches because he and others are too stupid to understand what it means about the goodness of government regulation of an economy called SUPPLY AND DEMAND. SURPRISE! That is not SUPPLY SIDE ONLY economics which was how things were run in the Dark Ages. As said, created by “free markets” which win the hearts of common folks by playing lip service to the idea of “capitalism.” These people mis-lead the people.

Professor Cornwell is not given the mike. But he served many years on the Florida statewide faculty union senate. He worked with a local union during negotiations. He has some experience in this.

The union faced a Republican-led Florida government which never accepted the ideas about cost of living when negotiating salaries. Is that why Democrats don’t go there is they know the Republicans refuse to be rational? After all, the Rick Scott administration in Florida was not rational when it came to unions and salaries.

When Professor Cornwell began teaching in New York, negotiations were done, not by a county-wide school district, but smaller school districts. Thus, one end of a county might have had a lower cost of living than one near an urban area. In this scenario, Professor Cornwell was paid nearly $2000 less per year than his wife, who was in a district which geographically sat closer to a larger urban area.

This is mentioned because, hearing about the disparities of the gender wage gap this morning and all people here is that the SOLUTION…. SOLUTION… SOLUTION… is only ONE SOLUTION – Federal minimum wage across-the board. Damn it, this is not the ONLY solution. But no one wants to hear it being said: UNIONS can also be the solution because they negotiate ACROSS THE BOARD on a contract and do not negotiate according to sex or sexual identity.

Then again, one can say that the teaching profession is identified a great deal with being one dominated by females. Teachers are paid less than other professions, as is the case with professions such as nursing. Yet, nurses sometimes know more than the male-dominated profession of medical doctors and medical specialists where the pay is much higher. Same with the male-dominated legal profession. (Note that every commercial about personal injury lawyers with all the money are males, not one female lawyer).

The point here? The issue is more complex and it is not discussed in detail, as with the problems surrounding why we build a wall on the border with Mexico and those who don’t like the results pick up their fucking guns and do mass murders, trying to defend what the hell they do with a mis-guided idea about what the hell the 2nd Amendment means. McCarthy on social media who proclaims what he believes and asks for a “whether we like what he says,” then takes a photo of the results which would favor him, never taking into account those who don’t agree and WHY they don’t agree. “Like” it or say nothing. (Example of Fairness Doctrine which no longer exists because it was destroyed by Republicans at a time when Professor Cornwell, then a Republican, called out, “Republicans are foul in doing this”). This issue about a gender wage gap is more complicated than simply putting a band-aid on it and ending up, as always, with a scar that continues to bleed.

Disgusting for an America which was once better than that and led the world as an example of democracy, as some try to work to join with Russia, China, Hungary, Poland, and other dictatorships in nations which SHOULD be democratic). Winston Churchill, who was a leader of a nation which was bombed by Nazis and many innocent people died, said: “Democracy is a very bad form of government, but all the others are so much worse.” IBM’s Thomas J. Watson was a benevolent dictator, which some might say is good. But like a monarchy, the benevolent one dies and the next one is often a real ruthless and vicious dickhead. The dickheads who took over after the death of Thomas J. Watson and his son destroyed something good. Putin is no different than Stalin or any one of the czars, all vicious and ruthless dictators.