You are making my point, not your point with comments like that. Obviously some degree are more VALUABLE than others.

 

I think you are right there Paul. It is not unique to the US by any means. Educational standards in the UK and europe have taken a notable dive in the past 30+ years also. There seems to be a direct link between education, upbringing, poverty and sexism in the workplace. Legislation seems to have done little to rebalance the equilibrium of equal pay for equal jobs. Comparing apples with apples IMO the vid is wrong but only when comparing apples with oranges does the real disparity manifest itself. Admittedly, many women will accept lower paid work as infill or part time during family life but it will also manifest initially in an inferior education also and having kids and a family seems the overarching ambition of many even today hence intermittent paid work for poorer wages. If one turns back the clock, everyone has the same or similar chances of education and career but some choose to ignore this option for short term gain. My daughter (who's a complete AH) is a lawyer and owns her company, she had the education and backing to achieve. Unfortunately today (and I speak of UK knowledge only) they have lowered the educational standards to meet the lowest common denominator rather than raise them in line with modern communications and technology. The world of PC dictates that one cannot be perceived as a loser or non achiever so everyone has to be a winner which is also prevalent in school sports. Hence, we have now bred an underclass where non achievement is natural and others and the state will provide. This is witnessed by the amount of economic migrants (calling themselves asylum seekers) clammering to enter the UK due to the generous handouts. Problem, be it underpaid women, economic migrants, the underclass or whoever the politicians court these people as easy votes and pander to their needs. There's no easy answer as these people will always be exploited and underpaid as the system encourages this whatever the legislation or minimum wage is set.

 

There is political talk of rebalancing the higher educational cost tariff in favour of manufacturing sciences vs social/political sciences as many of the latter contribute nothing towards national GDP in most cases. Whereas this can be classed as discriminatory it will increase the 'saleable' knowledge base nationally. Social/political sciences to me has always been a "I'm not sure what I want to do with my life" option (sorry Paul) whereas hard sciences, manufacturing, R&D, etc can generate wealth both for society and GDP nationally. When one meanders through the job/career world, many jobs just shuffle money around internally and have no 'exportable' value at all. Sometimes it's difficult to find a job or career that actually creates exportable wealth contributing to national GDP. IMO, these jobs/careers are at future risk of total obliteration by technology (bots - another thread entirely). I may be biased coming from a exportable wealth generating career but I cannot see how many countries (vis France) will survive on internal service industries and more and more public servants.

The point of this all being is that many service or part time jobs will disappear or fall into the minumum pay categories which will, in fact, damage what possibilities are available to the lesser educated.

 

Offroad, no skin off my nose but you might want to read this:

Successful Philosophy Majors - Business Insider

And this:

11 Reasons To Major In The Humanities - Business Insider

While at Reed College (a notorious liberal arts college in Portland, OR) Steve Jobs studied literature, poetry and physics.

How about this for the ability to think critically.

Buzz Blog: Best Majors for GRE Scores in 2013: Philosophy Dominates

The Management Myth - Matthew Stewart - The Atlantic

Philosophers Find the Degree Pays Off in Life And in Work - NYTimes.com

Philosophy

Philosophy is Back in Business - Businessweek

I could go on, but my point is that the continual narrowing of focus in school only serves to produce automatons incapable of creative, analytical thinking. A day doesn't go by that I don't use the skills taught to me in college, nor does a day go by that I am not thankful for those skills.

 

Jafir,
That video was the most insulting piece of right wing agitprop I've heard today. It's the same nonsense that the CEO of Microsoft was spouting the day before. He walked that BS back real fast yesterday.

Take a look at the real stats, not something some woman giving a script to recite, say.

The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation and by Race and Ethnicity, 2013 — IWPR

Make sure to open the PDF.

And the idiocy of "women get paid less because of the jobs they choose" garbage is the result of a paternalistic society (especially in the south) that has worked diligently (and recently, very forcefully) to keep women barefoot and pregnant. Provide miserably ineffective education (your state is ranked 45th out of 50 by the EXTREMELY right wing ALEC group Report Card on American Education - State Education Rankings), limit opportunity through the failure of the state social welfare (read this report by Representative Kathy Webb, it's sobering to say the least, http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/bureau...20Arkansas.pdf) and voila, you have a class of people with a distinct earnings disadvantage. It has nothing to do with choice on the part of those harmed by these policies, rather, it is a deliberate attempt to keep women (and people of color) down.

 

We briefly talked about this in the "Future" thread. I will reiterate an alternate possiblity that may very well be taken in regard to the habitually under or unemployable class.

We live in a consuming society. As a result, it behooves those with the means of production to make sure enough people are able to buy their "stuff." It is also in the best interest of those who govern to insure that people are able to consume more than just the basics. For the sake of preservation, we will see corporations and governments come to the realization that a guaranteed income for all citizens is essential. Said income will serve as a paliative for the disaffected enabling them to remain in the consuming class.

This "social dividend" is a small price to pay for maintaining levels of consumption and insuring a reasonable satisfied populace.

 

Hi Paul, it isn't intended as a 'poke' in the eye more of a generator of ideas, opinions and views.

The point I'm trying to make is the vast majority of employment is for internal money consumption not exportable goods and services creating national wealth and contributing to the national GDP. One only needs to cast an eye over europe and the EU. Some countries are exporters and some are internal money players/recyclers with reducing exports, vis France. The problems of the EU in some way parallel the US in that it is economically disparate states combined under one flag and trading agreement. The other major issues are that many states in europe fail to 'think outside the box' and cannot recognise the global economy whilst the far eastern countries are leaping forward and now producing quality goods at affordable costs. This will inevitably damage the western economies whose wage structure as such is higher and therefore their selling prices. One only has to consider the automotive industries in the west, look at the UK west midlands, car manufacturing doesn't exist anymore as similar to Detroit. Now take a look at far eastern cars and motorbikes on the roads, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Suzuki, Yamaha etc, etc. Now take a look at the household consumer goods markets, Samsung, Sony, etc, etc. Why, because they produce quality goods at an affordable price and they don't produce 'Friday afternoon' goods with intrinsic defects.

It is also borne out in the balance of payments of many western countries where they import far more than export in value.