Tidbits
Political Quotations
To Accompany the May 16, 2021Edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2021/tidbits051621.htm
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University
The Jewish Express: A Brief History of
Antifa: Part I ---
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/a-brief-history-of-antifa-part-i/2020/06/14/
The Jewish Experess: A Brief History of
Antifa: Part II ---
https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/a-brief-history-of-antifa-part-ii-antifa-in-the-united-states/2020/06/24/
Also see
https://www.wnd.com/2020/09/biden-claims-antifa-isnt-real-wnds-free-22000-word-e-book-proves-lying/
When Antifa received word that Ngo's book was
for sale at Powell's bookstore, they decided to show up and demand that the
local chain cease selling it all together ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2021/01/11/watch-antifa-demands-a-local-bookstore-stop-selling-andy-ngos-book-about-antifas-nasty-tactics-n2582974?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/12/2021&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Nobody want to be the target of Antif's's arsonists
Antifa members threaten to 'burn' down DC
during Black Lives Matter march ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/antifa-members-threatens-to-burn-down-dc-during-black-lives-matter-march
FBI director calls Antifa 'a real thing' ---
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/516911-fbi-director-wray-calls-antifa-a-real-thing
'
Antifa
group continues occupation of Seattle-area hotel with plans to stay permanently
for free ---
https://thepostmillennial.com/antifa-takes-over-seattle-area-hotel
Did you notice how the major media no longer reports these takeovers?
According to The New York Times, potentially
90 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have such
insignificant amounts of the virus present in their bodies that such individuals
do not need to isolate nor are they candidates for contact tracing ---
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html
Supply Chain Complexity: A dose of the
BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, for example, requires 280 components from multiple
countries ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/03/supply-chain-sentences-to-ponder.html
My Latest Web Document
Over 700 Examples of Critical Thinking and Illustrations of How to Mislead With
Statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/MisleadWithStatistics.htm
What's Wrong With Wind and Solar? ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqppRC37OgI
Electricity prices are already going up because of the 'wasteful, duplicative
solar and wind on our grid' Facebook Twitter Comments Print Email ---
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/biden-climate-actions-to-jolt-electricity-prices
Animated Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth
Over 200 Years (1790 – 2010) ---
A Visualization of the United States’ Exploding Population Growth Over 200 Years
(1790 – 2010)
USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The published national debt is a lie
Here's the real federal debt ---
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/about/our_national_debt
Debt to GDP Ratio by Country 2020 ---
https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-national-debt/
Human Population Over Time on Earth ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUwmA3Q0_OE
MIT's Links to Covid-19 Trackers Around the World ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/07/1000961/launching-mittr-covid-tracing-tracker/
Johns Hopkins University:
Updated Map and Table on the Number of Coronavirus Cases for Every Nation
---
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Accuracy is subject to wide margins of error for every nation and varies greatly
between nations.
Covid019 in New Hampshire
---
https://www.nh.gov/covid19/
The best maps for comparing
counties and towns in your state are provided by your state. For example, here's
the map showing the distribution of cases for New Hampshire counties and towns
---
https://www.wmur.com/article/new-hampshire-coronavirus-map/32009329#
Cities such as Los Angeles,
Minneapolis, New York City, Portland, Ore., and Austin, Texas, have shifted
funds from police departments to social services programs see an spike in
violent crime ---
https://www.foxnews.com/us/police-defunded-cities-murders-crime-budget
Beautiful News Daily (news and statistics to offset all of
today's bad news) ---
https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/
Here's a humorous and serious TED talk that seriously argues why the world needs billionaires
https://www.ted.com/talks/harald_eia_where_in_the_world_is_it_easiest_to_get_rich
Why did Cuba abandon its socialist/communist dream of equality for everybody?
The Guardian: This was the egalitarian dream of Cuba in the 1960s: For years in
Cuba, jobs as varied as farm workers and doctors only had a difference in their
wages of the equivalent of a few US dollars a month.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/12/cuba
Here's a somber and serious Guardian article on why the Cuban
model of income equality for all is a disaster ---
Fidel Castro says his economic system is failing ---
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/09/fidel-castro-cuba-economic-model
Cuba lifts ban on most
private business to deal with worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet
Union ---
https://worldnewsera.com/news/finance/cuba-lifts-ban-on-most-private-business/
Socialism Doesn't Work ---
https://reason.com/2021/02/10/socialism-doesnt-work/
Nordic Countries are Not Socialist Paradises ---
https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-moms-research-part-1-nordic-countries-are-not-socialist-paradises_3695026.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-02-12-3
Nordic countries are capitalist
Miracle of Chile ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_Chile
Movie: The Chicago Boys of Chile ---
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/chicagoboysenglish
How to Fix Economic Inequality? ---
https://www.piie.com/microsites/how-fix-economic-inequality
Cuba’s Dubious Miracle ---
https://www.hoover.org/research/cubas-dubious-miracle
The Singapore Dream: How Singapore's richest man went
from welding in a factory for $14 per hour to owning a $17 billion hotpot
restaurant chain ---
https://www.businessinsider.com/life-of-singapore-richest-man-from-welder-to-hotpot-billionaire-2020-1
After 40 years of capitalism, China’s income is divided almost as unequally as
America’s ---
https://qz.com/1591961/thomas-pikettys-new-research-shows-rising-inequality-in-china/
China has more billionaires than any other country in the world (and
generating more at a higher rate than any other nation) ---
https://qz.com/1919974/china-created-a-record-number-of-billionaires-despite-covid-19/
A Letter to My Children Regarding Bernie Sanders ---
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/digital/a-letter-to-my-children-regarding-bernie-sanders/
A study of Bernie's past reveals a very dangerous man who could bring down the
USA
History Tells Us to Worry About Inflation (in spite of what Paul Krugman
says) ---
https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/macroeconomic-history-tells-us-to-worry-about-inflation
The Bill Is Coming Due for China’s
‘Capitalist’ Experiment ---
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bill-coming-due-china-capitalist-113012069.html
Thanks Wm. Dennis Huber for the heads up
What's Wrong With a Wealth Tax?
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/whats-wrong-with-a-wealth-tax
While a
move is underway to destroy the American Dream of rags to riches (by taxing away
the riches) the Chinese dream is on the rise.
The Chinese Dream
How a Chinese billionaire went from making $16 a month in a factory to being one
of the world's richest self-made women with an $8.3 billion real-estate empire
---
https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-richest-self-made-woman-wu-yajun-net-worth-2019-2
Top 50 Billionaires in China ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_by_net_worth
Jensen
Comment
The question for students to debate is why a supposed
communist country allows so many billionaires to rise up from poverty.
That's supposed to happen in the USA where a child growing up in deep
poverty (think Oprah Winfrey or Howard Shultz) became a multi-billionaires.
But is it also supposed to happen under communism? If
so, why?
One reason is that many billionaires can afford to pour lots of money into high risk ventures. When's the last time you heard about a high risk (think Silicon Valley) venture in Europe?
Here's a humorous and serious TED talk that seriously argues why the world needs billionaires
https://www.ted.com/talks/harald_eia_where_in_the_world_is_it_easiest_to_get_rich
Vaccine Politics in Europe Versus America ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/01/vaccine-politics-in-europe-and-america.html
Wikiquote from Wikipedia --- https://www.wikiquote.org/
I detest what you write, but I would give my
life to make it possible for you to continue to write ---
Voltaire
"This is perhaps the assembly of the most
intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House, with the exception
of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone"
John F. Kennedy at a White House party
As cities chose to reduce police budgets for 2020, this is
what happened to their murder rates ---
https://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/murderspike.jpg
Harper's: A Letter on Justice and Open Debate --- |
They're Coming to America ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2021/01/21/theyre-coming-to-america-n2583446?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=01/21/2021&bcid=b16c6f948f297f77432f990d4411617f&recip=17935167
Scientists suggest US embassies were hit with
high-power microwaves – here’s how the weapons work
https://theconversation.com/scientists-suggest-us-embassies-were-hit-with-high-power-microwaves-heres-how-the-weapons-work-151730
The Guardian: American classics among
most ‘challenged’ books of the decade in US (protesters want them removed from
libraries and schools) ---
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/28/classics-books-most-often-challenged-and-banned-in-us-banned-books-week-to-kill-a-mockingbird
Bob Jensen's threads on banned books
In 1785 the state legislature of Virginia
unanimously rejected a proposal from evangelicals to free the state’s slaves ---
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/09/virginia-fact-of-the-day.html
When the Great Scorer comes to write against your name, one unforgiveable sin (racial profiling) outweighs all the good you've done in life.
Bob Jensen
Kobe Bryant: We need to make the most of
every minute we have ---
https://www.newsweek.com/i-wont-take-see-you-later-granted-148449
It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.
Political Correctness: New York Times
Conveniently Revises History on the 2020 Antifa/BLM-Led Riots ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/01/new-york-times-conveniently-revises-history-on-the-2020-antifa-blm-led-riots/
The 2020 Election Was a Rebuke of Socialism
---
https://reason.com/2021/01/18/the-2020-election-was-a-rebuke-of-socialism/
Even Though Biden Won, Republicans Enjoyed The Largest Electoral College Edge In
70 Years. Will That Last?
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/even-though-biden-won-republicans-enjoyed-the-largest-electoral-college-edge-in-70-years-will-that-last/
Taiwan’s Crowdsourced Democracy Shows Us How to Fix Social Media ---
The Result of "Too Much Money": Asset Price
Inflation and Inequality ---
https://mises.org/wire/result-too-much-money-asset-price-inflation-and-inequality?utm_source=Mises+Institute+Subscriptions&utm_campaign=70a67886d5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_21_2018_9_59_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8b52b2e1c0-70a67886d5-228708937
James Baldwin Talks About Racism in America &
Civil Rights Activism on The Dick Cavett Show (1969) ---
http://www.openculture.com/2020/08/james-baldwin-talks-about-racism-in-america-civil-rights-activism-on-the-dick-cavett-show-1969.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+OpenCulture+(Open+Culture)
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose. And it’s an unreliable guide to the future
Bill Gates, “The Road Ahead”
Hermann Weyl born in Hamburg, Germany. He wrote,
"One may say that mathematics talks about the things which are of no concern to
men. Mathematics has the inhuman quality of starlight---brilliant, sharp, but
cold ... thus we are clearest where knowledge matters least: in mathematics,
especially number theory." ---
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Weyl.html
Also see Mathematical Analytics in Plato's Cave
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm#Analytics
And nevertheless conclude that the optimum
amount of restriction of immigration is zero point zero, zero, zero? Amazing.
Economics are generally skeptical models that yield corner solutions ---
https://www.econlib.org/do-you-talk-about-it-in-open-borders-yes/
Jensen Comment
To the list of questions I would add "Do your talk about the Tragedy of the
Commons?"
The problem with open borders is somewhat related to the economic problem of
"The Sharing of the Commons" where giving everybody the right to use a free
resource leads to everybody losing that resource. At what point will allowing
billions of people share in the free medical care, free college, and other
scarce resources ruin it for everybody ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
China ‘forcing Uighur Muslims and other
minorities to work in cotton fields’ ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/china-forcing-uighur-muslims-and-other-minorities-to-work-in-cotton-fields-6vz3750t6
Socialist and communism advocates often overlook instances of slavery forced by
governments rather than capitalists
U.S. physicists rally around ambitious plan to
build fusion power plant ---
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/us-physicists-rally-around-ambitious-plan-build-fusion-power-plant
https://www.data-z.org/news/detail/a-short-history-of-corruption-in-illinois
History of United States Immigration Laws ---
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwGCkZzrvQkcFbRplBPwBFwmFDs
Persecution Of Christians: The 21st Century
Crisis Which Is Not Making Headlines ---
Click Here
'Cancel Culture Gone Mad': Fans React as
'Captain Underpants' Book Pulled Over Racism Concerns ---
https://www.newsweek.com/cancel-culture-gone-mad-fans-react-captain-underpants-book-pulled-over-racism-concerns-1579602
To Rob, Rape, and Kill Again: 76,000
California Violent, Repeat Felons Get Earlier Releases ---
Click Here
‘We
have…roughly 400 companies from China listed in the U.S. that are literally
beyond the reach of investigation and enforcement,’ a short seller and leading
fraud detector claims many should be delisted ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/carson-block-calls-for-delisting-of-many-chinese-firms-in-u-s-11620238009?mod=djemCFO
White Farmers Excluded From Biden Loan
Forgiveness Program Sue To Stop “use of race discrimination as a tool to end
‘systemic racism’” ---
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/05/white-farmers-excluded-from-biden-loan-forgiveness-program-sue-to-stop-use-of-race-discrimination-as-a-tool-to-end-systemic-racism/
How Trillions in Newly Printed Money Created a
Labor Shortage ---
https://mises.org/wire/how-trillions-newly-printed-money-created-labor-shortage
The "Miracle Recovery" Narrative: We'll Just Print Our Way to Prosperity ---
https://mises.org/wire/miracle-recovery-narrative-well-just-print-our-way-prosperity
CBS News: Wealthy would dodge 90% of
Biden's capital gains tax increase, study says ---
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-capital-gains-tax-wealthy/
Jensen Comment
Biden probably knew this from the start. However, his backup plan to print
trillions of dollars will pay for the new social programs he wants to initiate.
What's wrong with simply printing the money to finance these programs? The
Federal Reserve is printing money now to provide liquidity for old programs.
It's called Quantitative Easing ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
The other alternative to hugely raise taxes on businesses. However, as far as
inflation goes such tax increases will probably be as disastrous as printing
money since business firms will pass most tax increases on to customers with
price increases. Why bother with increased taxes or borrowing. Simply print the
money!
These European Countries Beat Poverty and Increased Wealth with Low Taxes and Low Regulation ---
Yahoo Finance: The truth about
Trump's tax cuts by the numbers, not by Biden ---
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/truth-trumps-tax-cuts-numbers-120026435.html
Cops Continue To Get Killed On Duty While
Media Stays Silent ---
Click Here
Does National Debt Still
Matter? America's Greatest Gamble ---
https://reason.com/video/2021/04/05/does-national-debt-still-matter-americas-greatest-gamble/
. . .
Is there a point where taking on too much debt is an unacceptable risk?
"The United States isn't going to default on its debt. We borrow in our own currency. So there's zero default risk," says Furman. "There is definitely inflation risk if you borrow too much and can't pay it off, but it's not like you go from one and a half percent inflation to hyperinflation in the blink of an eye. There's a lot of steps between here and there. I think there is certainly some risk and in the event that that risk materializes we will have to, very quickly, sit down and figure out how to raise taxes or cut spending."
Cochrane has a different perspective.
"Things always go boom all of a sudden, and so the key to fiscal management is to keep some dry powder around to have some ability to be able to borrow more," Cochrane says. "Imagine if world war breaks out, and we've already borrowed the 100 percent debt-to-GDP ratio that we ended World War II with. Well, once we're at a 100, 150, 200, our ability to meet that next crisis with borrowing is gone and then that next crisis is a catastrophe."
Jensen Comment
What I question is how relevant previous research (when the government borrowed
in the billions or hundreds of billions) when progressives want to borrow
trillions or hundreds of trillions without giving consideration to problems of
scale.
I also question how we can "cut spending" when we find that tax collections are enormously below what liberal economists project. It's not so easy to cut spending when the social programs for free health care, free daycare, free college, student loan forgiveness, guaranteed annual income, green initiatives, etc. are legislated. Biden wants guarantee all those entitlements and then worry about how to pay for it later.
One difference is that in the past there were investors (think China) in the billions or hundreds of billions of dollars in USA debt securities. What happens when the only investor for trillions and hundreds of trillions in USA debt securities is the Federal Reserve such that the USA government is really investing in its own debt --- when the only way for the Fed to pay for it is to print money (the Fed calls it Quantitative Easing).
There are some myths that the liberal media just is not explaining truthfully. One is that we can easily raise trillions by increasing business taxation. What the media (and liberal economists) fail to mention is that businesses don't pay taxes. They pass those taxes on in higher prices to you and me (consumers). We (consumers) are thus really the ones being taxed. And the business taxes are highly regressive since the masses of poor consumers are the ones hit relatively hardest by price increases for food, fuel, housing, and medical care.
The other myth is that taxing the super rich will pay for trillions in new social programs. The tax collections from the super rich will be woefully inadequate.
CBS News: Wealthy would dodge 90% of
Biden's capital gains tax increase, study says ---
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-capital-gains-tax-wealthy/
In the just over 100 days
that Joe Biden has been president, he’s proposed $6 TRILLION in new
spending...Yet Biden and his progressive media refuse to address the basic
question I and many Americans keep asking: ‘How do you plan to pay for all of
this, Joe?’
Jensen Comment
Biden says (vaguely) that new taxes on the super rich and corporations will pay
for all this new spending, but he's not specific on what happens if the new
taxes are woefully short of $6 trillion. And new taxes on corporations will be
passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices. So that leaves borrowing
and printing money. Borrowing won't work well for trillions of new go9vernment
debt because the only customer at that level is the government itself (read that
Federal Reserve). And to buy that debt the Federal Reserve can only print
trillions of dollars. Welcome to Venezuela north of the Rio Grande.
The "Miracle Recovery" Narrative: We'll Just
Print Our Way to Prosperity ---
https://mises.org/wire/miracle-recovery-narrative-well-just-print-our-way-prosperity
How Trillions in Newly Printed Money Created a Labor Shortage in the USA ---
https://mises.org/wire/how-trillions-newly-printed-money-created-labor-shortage
Also see
Click Here
Three Reasons Why the Biden
Tax Increase Makes No Sense ---
https://mises.org/wire/three-reasons-why-biden-tax-increase-makes-no-sense
First, estimated real revenue impact is negligible.
Second, the impact on the economy will be larger than what the Biden administration estimates.
Third, the problem of mandatory spending is not even addressed.
Spain’s Four-Day Work Week
(32 hours with no reduction in pay) Is a Game Changer ---
Click Here
Jensen Comment
This has to increase the cost of most everything. For example, public workers
(think police and firefighters) have to be on duty 24/7. Supposedly more such
workers will have to be paid or the same workers will start collecting overtime
after 32 hours. This will require a
significant increase in tax dollars. Similarly, private sector products
and services will cost more with most of those costs being passed along to
customers in the form of higher prices. The saving grace may be more robotics in
some instances, but more robotics may translate into higher unemployment in some
instances (not all). Spain's unemployment rate is around 16%. The 32-hour work
week will both decrease increase costs in some sectors and decrease costs it in
other sectors where robotics and other technology will come into play.
One thing is bound to happen. More workers will start working two or more jobs, thereby defeating the purpose of the reduced work week.
For professors who both teach and conduct research it's hard to count hours of work. My guess is that this change in the work week will have little or no impact on their time spent on "work," although the number of assigned classtime hours may be reduced, thereby leaving more time for research.
Jensen Comment
Hi Jim,
Productivity is hard to measure (think an automobile assembly line) when each worker only contributes a small fraction of the total productivity. If the assembly line keeps rolling five days a week, each worker will either have to be replaced with another worker or a robot, thereby adding to cost. I think cost is more of a consideration than productivity since most organizations will try to remain as productive as ever with greater costs.
A reduction in hours provides some cost efficiencies, but in some industries the costs are likely to rise ---
https://phys.org/news/2019-11-economics-four-day-week-businesses-money.htmlOne of the main challenges outlined by our research is that the four-day working week can be difficult to implement in service industries where customer demands need to be met, and particularly for smaller businesses. It would also imply a significant change in public services like teaching and nursing. But Labour did recognize that different sectors will need to respond in different ways.
Meanwhile, research by the Centre for Policy Studies, a center-right think tank, also found that reducing the hours of public sector employees would mean at best a £17 billion cost for the Treasury and at worst a possible £45 billion cost, assuming no increase in productivity and a need to expand the workforce in public services.
President Joe Biden sought to ease tensions with his political allies by
quadrupling the limit on the number of refugees who can enter the U.S. after
months of administration wavering and reversals over increasing the cap ---
Click Here
Doesn't much matter much with the thousands crossing into the USA that are not
counted and remain safe from deportation in sanctuary cities.
Last month, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) projected that as many as
184,000 unaccompanied children could reach the border in fiscal year 2021 ---
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/migrant-children-border-down-600-march
How to Mislead With Statistics
The Gender Gap in Pandemic
Job Losses Has Been Wildly Exaggerated ---
https://reason.com/2021/05/11/the-gender-gap-in-pandemic-job-losses-has-been-wildly-exaggerated/
Jobs data casts doubt on the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic is uniquely setting women back.
For more than a year, the U.S. has been flooded with gloomy headlines and dire predictions about women and work. "The pandemic is devastating a generation of working women," opined one Washington Post writer in February. Citing data showing that 2.5 million women dropped out of the workforce since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Vice President Kamala Harris said "the pandemic has put decades of the progress we have collectively made for women workers at risk."
Harris called it a "national emergency"—albeit one that could be fixed by greenlighting the Biden administration's coronavirus spending plan.
And so the narrative typically goes: women's employment prospects are in crisis; the way out is passing the Democrats' preferred economic policies. (See Matt Welch in Reason's June print issue for more on this rhetoric.)
But the magnitude of this gender gap has never been as great as many have made it out to be. And recent data cast further doubt on the "she-cession" narrative. At the end of April 2021, the unemployment rate for women was slightly lower than the unemployment rate for men. And the women's labor force participation rate had recovered more than the men's rate had.
Just How Big Are These Gender Gaps Now?
To read headlines about gender and job losses, one might get the impression that U.S. women are faring drastically worse on the coronavirus-era employment front than men are. Yet such losses have never been as drastically gendered as many doomsayers let on.
"Labor force participation—defined as all civilians working full or part time, as well as those who are unemployed but looking for work—fell dramatically for both genders between March and April 2020," noted Gallup. In April 2020, men's labor force participation was at 97.8 percent of its February 2020 level and women's labor force participation was 96.9 percent of its February 2020 level—a gender gap of just 0.9* percentage points.
he labor force participation rate is a separate measure than the unemployment rate, which is concerned with how many people are out of work and actively seeking a job. On unemployment, U.S. women are also faring better than their male counterparts (though "better" here does come with some caveats, since unemployment numbers don't include people out of a job and not seeking a new one).
In April 2021, the unemployment rate for U.S. men ages 20 and older was at 6.1 percent, down 7 percentage points from its April 2020 peak. For women ages 20 and older, it was at 5.6 percent—down 9.9 percentage points since the previous April.
Put another way, women's unemployment rate is now just 2.5 percentage points higher than it was in pre-pandemic times, while men's unemployment rate is 2.9 percentage points higher.
The Truth Behind the Panic
It is true that American women initially lost more jobs to COVID-19 than their male counterparts did (in contrast to the typical recession pattern).
In February 2020, the civilian unemployment rate for women age 20 and up was 3.1 percent, according to BLS data. For men, it was 3.2 percent. But by the end of April 2020, the unemployment rate for women had jumped to 15.5 percent, while for men it only jumped to 13.1 percent.
Two explanations for this discrepancy have emerged. First, women tend to outnumber men as the primary caregivers for children and elderly or ailing family members, leaving them more vulnerable to work disruptions when schools and child care centers shut down, when kids need homeschooling, or when relatives need care. Second, women are more highly concentrated in retail, leisure, and hospitality jobs, which were more heavily affected by pandemic-related closures, restrictions, and mandates.
While the first factor has gained the most attention, the second one may be the bigger culprit.
Labor force participation for women with children did indeed drop more than it did for men with children, "consistent with the theory that working mothers disproportionately took themselves out of the labor force to care for children who were no longer able to attend day care or school," noted Gallup. Yet "the drops among women without children and men without children are also sizable," which "suggests that factors other than child care have significantly influenced decisions to leave the workforce."
"Overall, these labor force patterns seem largely tied to occupational differences between women and men," according to Gallup's analysis of BLS data. "Occupations with a higher share of women have exhibited lower labor force participation rates and higher unemployment rates throughout the pandemic."
Either explanation suggests that—for both women and men—the drop is more likely short-term than long-term.
A Call to Arms?
Given the current state of recovery, "it does not make sense to enact permanent programs, such as government-run paid family and medical leave, subsidized childcare, and universal pre-K with the justification of fixing a COVID -19 disparity that no longer exists," argues Heritage Foundation research fellow Rachel Greszler in a new report.
"Policymakers can do far more to help women and families by removing government-imposed barriers to flexible work, to employer-provided paid family and medical leave, and to accessible and affordable childcare than by adding costly and bureaucratic new programs and upending the labor market in ways that would limit families' incomes and choices," she posits.
By February 2021, labor force participation for both sexes had ticked back up somewhat. And while women were still seeing a less full recovery, the gap was again less than one percentage point. Compared to February 2020, men's February 2021 labor force participation was 2.2 percent smaller and women's was 3.1 percent smaller.
That's not nothing—"the gap in labor force changes amounts to roughly 493,000 more women than men being absent from the labor force since the pandemic began," Gallup pointed out in early March. But it's also not evidence that women have been uniquely devastated by pandemic-related job losses, especially when—contra previous economic downturns—many of the circumstances that initially created the job losses will remedy quickly as life returns to a more normal pace.
Indeed, that already seems to be happening, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
In April 2021, the labor force participation rate for U.S. men 20 and older was 69.8 percent, down from 71.6 percent in February 2020. For women, it was 61.7 percent in April, down from the 63.3 percent in February 2020. So, while women's labor force participation was lower than men's at the start of the pandemic and still is, women are now slightly closer than men are to their pre-pandemic participation level, with the April 2021 labor force participation rate for men 1.8 percentage points lower and the rate for women down 1.6 percentage points.
Continued in article
Updates on Medical Insurance
The good, the bad, and the ugly of England's universal health-care system
---
https://theweek.com/articles/789287/good-bad-ugly-englands-universal-healthcare-system
Sponsored by California Nurses Association and
authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, AB 1400 will ensure that all Californians,
regardless of employment, income, immigration status, race, gender, or any other
considerations, can get the health care they need, free at the point of service
---
https://www.thestreet.com/mishtalk/economics/california-nurses-sponsor-a-bill-mandating-free-healthcare-for-everyone
Jensen Comment
There is no program for funding this massive expense; The expense is unknown,
because it there's no way of knowing how many chronically ill people in the
other 49 states will flock to California for free medical care, let alone how
many chronically ill people in the world will flock to California under the
Biden-Harris open borders plan. How can California offer free medical care
and long-term nursing care to everybody that's now available in the USA only for
the poor who are eligible for Medicaid? Free medical care alone could easily
bankrupt the State of California in the first year of implementation.
California does not have the medical care capacity to provide free medical care
to all the people that will flood California seeking free medical care.
Open immigration can’t exist with a strong
social safety net; if you’re going to assure
healthcare and a decent income to everyone,
you can’t make that offer global ---
Paul Krugman
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/724654-open-immigration-can-t-exist-with-a-strong-social-safety-net
COMMON SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS (DRUG ADDICTION) ---
https://www.addictiongroup.org/resources/faq/sud/
Bob Jensen's threads on health insurance ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Bob Jensen's
Tidbits Archives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm
Bob
Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Summary of Major Accounting Scandals --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals
Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:
Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm
Current and past editions of my
newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Enron --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm
Rotten to the Core --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
American History of Fraud --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm
Bob Jensen's fraud
conclusions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
corporate governance are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
· With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
· With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams
· With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR
· With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen
What went
wrong in accounting/accountics research? ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most
Accountants ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW:
1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox)
that probably will never be solved
---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
Bob Jensen's economic crisis messaging http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm
Bob Jensen's threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob Jensen's homepage --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/