Food for thought on Feminism and Gender Equality?

[Lucixir]

Wow, a very intelligent and thoughtful write-up. I enjoyed reading it. However, I believe there is partial truth in everything you are bringing up, one with many complex reasoning behind.

The idea of "middle class" which is something I think you are focusing around is a thing of the past and many things contribute to the reason why but there are some key things that happened along the way to shape the way it has become. The main culprit that started the decline of the middle class was the removal of the gold standard in 1971 by then president Nixon. Money became a derivatives of debt, no longer backed by gold, hence a future promise of the tax payers to repay debts. The truly Fiat money system our founding fathers tried to avoid. The 4th national bank was started in 1913, known as the Federal Reserve, which is neither Federal or public, it is a private entity comprised of bankers, private bankers.

As our economy took a downfall in the late 70's and early 80's, Reagan was elected and produced "side economics" which was more of a twist to our fiat money system. The middle class took off once again, people could afford to live off single incomes, but as with any Boom, a bust is not too far ahead. Corporatism dominated our economy, with lobbying of unfair and unjust trade practices, unions were falling, they were allowed to exploit 3rd world countries labor pools, force Americans to compete with cheap labor but pay high prices for the cheaper products. They were allowed to bend and twist the tax laws in their favor, avoiding taxes all together, they even started receiving rebates in 1995.

In order for the middle class to continue the quality of life they were used to, they were forced to work longer hours, both adults were forced to work, and it just compiled into what we have now. Once again, people are struggling to survive and get by from all of this and just make ends meet.

Women were lucky and pursued service related higher education jobs, that are not easily targeted to out-sourcing. A college education was also cheaper in those days, making it easier to justify the costs of college for the jobs of the future. The return of investment was very good compared to now. Colleges have now turned into a business rather than an industry responsible for providing quality education and focusing on education. Deans became CEO's, Athletics became advertising revenue, education is a by-product with laws manipulated to enslave people to the debt accumulated in pursuit of the American Dream. They are essentially tied to a mortgage with no property to show for when done, but everything of their future will be taken, including their social security benefits (if there), any type of aid, with no chance to get out of that compacted interest trap. They become under-employed, with hardly any benefits and work to pay their interests on their loans. They exist to produce profits for others.

Women, less confrontational are usually willing to work for less and easier to be taken advantage of for their goodwill and caring attitudes, money isn't quite everything to them and the businesses take advantage of that. Businesses want the best for the least amount of annual salary, or costs. They have succeeded in making people highly competitive for a decent job, they get the creme of the crop for the best price. This is a by-product of the unfair competing with the global labor market. They have flooded the market with skilled and very desperate workers who will do more for less just to provide for their families.

As you can see, there are many issues to factor in with your initial write-up, one that I have been studying and witnessing for the past 3 decades. Nothing is getting better, it is getting worse. I've often thought about how can this get better and I continue to run into a brick wall with no answers. Times have shown in history when people are taken over by their government, exploited by greed of corporations; they have no choice but to revolt. I see not revolt on the horizon but I fear it will be the only way to stop the atrocities that have been continuously committed against the people of our great nation to benefit the small powerful full blinded to greed and nothing is ever enough. Greed.

Thank you for this write-up, I'd love to have the opportunity to sit down and share ideas if I ever ran across you in a cafe, many people simply do not care to talk about such things. If there immediate surroundings are not threatened most do not care to see it how it really is nor care of those caught up in it. Sad fact is, they will be in that dysfunctional circle pretty soon with how things are going.