Women Making Money

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally and inadvertently published under the byline of the wrong author.  The author is Carole Joffe as is now reflected in the byline.

"(I am proud of) trying to defund Planned Parenthood and make sure they didn’t have any money, not just for abortion, but money for anything."

This is gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker speaking to Wisconsin Right to Life last April, boasting about his record as a state legislator. And for this constituency, now-Governor Walker has come through.  His recently released budget proposes to repeal Wisconsin’s “contraceptive equity” law which stipulates that that health insurance plans in the state that cover prescription drugs cover contraception.  The budget also eliminates the state’s participation in the Title V Maternal and Child Health program, which provides family planning services as well as other health services for both men and women, including prostate and cervical cancer screenings.  Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin argues that such a move would mean the loss of four million dollars (of both state and federal funds) affecting 50 health centers in the state (PP receives about one quarter of Wisconsin’sTitle V funds).

Scott Walker’s actions in the short time he has been governor (he took office in January) were supposed to serve as a template for the newly energized Republican governors and state legislators who came to power as a result of the November 2010 “shellacking.”  That is, please your religious right base by going after birth control services in general and Planned Parenthood in particular, and please economic conservatives by offering generous tax breaks to corporations, massively cutting social programs, and  greatly weakening, if not destroying, public sector unions.

As a fascinated country has seen for the past several weeks, that part about destroying the unions hasn’t played so well.  Walker’s poll numbers are tanking.  The Republican leaning Rasmussen poll recently found that nearly 60% of Wisconsin likely voters now disapprove of Walker, with 48% “strongly disapproving.”  Observing Walker’s situation, a number of other Republican governors have backed off from earlier plans to similarly combat public sector unions in their states.

Thus far, however, neither Republicans in Congress or in state houses show signs of retreating from the harsh and increasingly bizarre war they are waging on abortion and contraception. In Congress, Republicans (and a handful of Democrats) voted to defund Planned Parenthood and Title X, a program that funds family planning and other basic reproductive health services, and passed legislation that permits hospitals to deny lifesaving abortions.   At the state level, several states are considering legislation that has been interpreted as making the killing of abortion providers “justifiable homicide,” Georgia is considering a “prenatal murder” bill that would make miscarriages  suspect  unless a woman could “prove” she did nothing to cause it,  and S. Dakota has decreed that before a woman can receive an abortion she must first go to a blatantly antiabortion “Crisis Pregnancy Center” for counseling—and then wait three days before seeking an abortion.

But there are signs that the American public is noting with alarm these fanatical measures. Just released data from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows a “movement toward a liberal position on abortion.”  While much has been made of a 2009 poll that showed the public evenly divided on the question of whether abortion should be legal, Pew reports that “support for legal abortion has recovered” and now stands at 54%, with 39% opposed.  Similarly, two recent polls show voter disapproval of the defunding of Planned Parenthood, with particularly strong opposition among women and younger respondents.

Though both the right and the left have tended to treat economic issues, including the fate of labor unions, and reproductive rights as separate phenomena, with two different constituencies, in the real lives of working people, these issues are very much connected.  Hardly surprisingly, in difficult economic times people try to control their childbearing. This was true during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and it is true today.  The Guttmacher Institute released a report, at the height of the current recession  that showed that many women did not feel they could afford another child and that they they were committed to using birth control more consistently.  Yet the report also showed that one in four respondents put off a visit to a family planning center because they could not afford it.

It is too soon to know the significance of the poll numbers cited above, or of the nation-wide demonstrations in recent weeks in support of both labor unions and Planned Parenthood. Possibly, though, this political moment may mark a serious pushback against the Right’s extraordinary overreach, since the 2010 election, in its eagerness to abolish both the workplace conditions and health care services needed  by so many.

Rasmussen has released one of the dumbest polls ever.

Ronald Reagan was the last president we had who didn’t graduate from an Ivy League school like Harvard or Yale, and the highest levels of government for much of the nation’s history have been filled with Ivy League grads. But that doesn’t seem to influence the thinking of most American Adults.

In fact, only three percent (3%) say individuals who go to Ivy League schools are better workers than those who go to other schools.

Isn’t this a non sequitur? What does getting elected president have to do with being a good worker?

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 79% do not think Ivy League students make better workers. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Adults across nearly every demographic agree that an Ivy League education does not necessarily make someone a better worker.

Does the Ivy League purport to make someone a better worker? What does that even mean? And what percentage of Americans have any basis for making the assessment, anyway? The vast majority of people, I’d wager, have never worked with someone with an Ivy League degree.

But only 28% of Americans believe that people who work harder generally make more money than others anyway. Most adults (58%) disagree, while 14% are undecided.

[...]

Men are twice as likely as women to think hard workers get paid more, and men under the age of 40 believe it more than their elders. But most Americans across all demographic categories say those who work harder do not generally get paid more than others.

Hard work is generally necessary to make a good living but it’s hardly the only factor–or even the most important. But the age and gender disparities on the question are interesting.

Most American Adults think how much money an individual is paid should depend more on what they get done on the job rather than their educational background or how long they’ve worked for a company.

Aside from schoolteachers and unionized labor, few people get paid based on education or seniority. Credentials are important in getting hired and promoted but they have little bearing one on the job.

In March of last year, an overwhelming majority of Americans (81%) said that people learn more practical skills through life experiences and work after college rather than in college.

I’ve got a PhD and could have told you that before starting grad school. College is only tangentially about teaching practical skills;  it’s about preparing the mind for a life of learning.

In December, just 30% of Americans said it is possible for anyone in America to work hard and get rich.

Most people lack the talent and desire required to earn massive amounts of money. And it’s very, very difficult indeed to get truly rich working for someone else.

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