More Gaps

It seems the newspaper recently is really emphasizing all the "gaps" in income, wealth, etc. The articles usually leave out key ideas. For example, in examining the gap in wealth between older Americans and younger ones, they left out the major factor of a difference in mindset. Older Americans tend to be the ones who have worked hard, put off buying luxuries, bought houses they could afford, and planned for their retirement. Younger Americans tend to be "live in the moment" types -- I want that new car with all the bells and whistles, and I don't want to wait until I've saved up a sizable downpayment. A two-bedroom house in a modest neighborhood just isn't big enough. I want the four-bedroom one with the pool outside.

Now we have the maternity leave gap. Lower-educated mothers are nearly four times more likely than college graduates to be denied paid maternity benefits according to the Census Bureau. That's the widest gap over the past 50 years bemoans the Associated Press. Could that be because lower-educated mothers didn't sacrifice to do well in school and, therefore, can't get the kinds of good-paying jobs with benefits that those who stuck it out and graduated college can? Yet that factor is never discussed in this article.

"For working families where the norm now is for both mom and dad to work, not having some kind of paycheck coming in while they take time to take care of a child can be a real financial burden," says Lynda Laughlin, a family demographer at the Census Bureau. If it's that much of a burden, perhaps they should consider delaying having children.

"There's a longer-term trend of widening U.S. income inequality caused by slow wage growth at the middle- and lower-income levels. Women with higher birth rates in the U.S. are on average younger and less educated and typically Hispanic, and they are more likely to toil in lower-wage positions." To sum up, Kathleen Gerson, a professor of sociology at New York University, says, "The irony is that the people with the most children are now the least likely to have the supports they need." Could it be that low-income people aren't low-income because they don't have supports, but that they're low-income because they refuse to control their hormones and stop having children they can't afford?
Of course, all this is part of the liberal agenda to place more burdens upon businesses. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 requires businesses to allow unpaid time off for the births and care of children. I told Mr. Essie May when that passed that it was just step one. The next thing, I predicted, was that businesses would be forced to provide paid time off. Looks like Essie may have predicted correctly on that one.

"Access to maternity leave levels off." The Dallas Morning News; November 11, 2011; p. 7A.