Reddit mentions: The best labor & economic relations books

Before I begin, let me say this: in asking this question at your age, you are several spots away from the bottom of the totem pole.

This is not to say "oh don't worry about out, you're still young." You need to be serious about becoming competent, but very few people are competent at anything meaningful at your age, and very, very few fields require that you be already competent by age 19 (most of the fields that do require this are things like sports or music, which are so competitive that you basically have to grow up with it). So you're not behind. I think the above comments have been useful, but incomplete. Yes, your mentality is of the upmost importance here, but you do need things to do. Especially if you have interest in trades.

I'll tell you a little bit about myself. When I was 19, I was finishing a degree in automotive technology. I was working as an entry level technician and a cook, and I had plans to attend the University of Northwestern Ohio for a Bachelors in High-Performance Motorsports, which would have put me among the most elite technicians in the country, where I would have been able to get into just about any kind of motorsports I wanted.

Now I'm 23. I have a Bachelors, but not from UNOH. I completely switched fields. When I was 20, I found myself drawn toward Philosophy and Literature, and so I completely dropped motorsports as a career path. I'd spent 2 years getting my associates, I'd spent tons of money on tools, I'd studied to pass ASE certifications test, but I dropped it all, went back to school and got my Bachelors with a double major in English and Philosophy. I'm now working for a while, and I'll be going back to graduate school next year to get my PhD. I'll probably be 27-28 years old before I have real, meaningful competency. This time frame has been a real challenge, since I'm impatient, and don't want to waste my 20's. Here's how I handle it: I love what I'm doing in the academic world (I'm starting a podcast soon just because I can't get enough of philosophy), and so hypothetically, I would be okay with doing it even if it never paid off financially (and it's a humanities PhD, so that's not unlikely).

Your goal, at least for the next couple of years, should be to figure out what you either already love, or what you are likely to come to love if you tried it. Very, very, very few people do this, and so they end up being moderately competent in something that they don't hate, and require all kinds of other things to make their life meaningful. Let me emphasize that this is absolutely, not a bad thing, and if you really think that creative pursuits are your thing, you may want to find an additional career to pay for your creative work.

In any case, you can almost certainly find things that you love without college (though you may need it once you get started). In fact, college often gives a distorted view of what the field is really like. Take psychology, for example. The world of acutally practicing psychologists is radically different than psych-academia, and if you used college classes with postmodern profs to gauge whether you'd like psychology, you might falsely assume that your practice will consist of talking to transgendered sexually abused black handicapped gay attack helicopters rather than the real client base. If you find you want to be an academic, then...sorry fo ya.

What I would do is expose yourself to as much as possible. Try something as simple as youtube. If, for example, you find that you like watching youtube videos of motorcycles, maybe you should try going to a race or a bike show, or reading a book about it. Keep in mind though, that it takes real engagement (more than just youtube) to see if it's something you could learn to love.

Notice I said "learn to love." The reason for this is that its perfectly likely that you won't absolutely love anything. Most people are like that. It's maybe 1/1000 people that naturally know instantly that they love something that they end up doing for the rest of their lives. Let's go back to motorcycles. Maybe you know nothing about them, but you know that you're analytical, so you might like diagnosing them, and you have an adrenaline-junkie streak, so you might like riding them, but right now you know so little about them that you don't really feel any particular way toward them. You need to have the self-awareness to know what kinds of things you might like. If you're analytical but don't have the adrenaline junkie in you, then maybe you need to try being a boat mechanic, because of how much you've enjoyed time on the river, and the people you've met who are also into boats.

One last thing. You may have noticed that I have a soft spot for mechanical things. I noticed that you said you may be interested in the trades. If what I've been saying resonates with you, I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend reading at least one of the following books by Matthew Crawford: either Shop Class as Soulcraft or The World Beyond Your Head. They're truly unconventional ways of thinking, and unlike what your high school counselor or typical self-help are likely to teach you.

Well, it is a very large union with many different locals so it isn't fair to dismiss it out of hand. There are certainly some good locals with good politics and a good approach to organizing.

Overall, and especially at the highest levels, the union is very corporate and extremely into doing the bidding of shitty milquetoast Democrats. I think it makes sense for unions to engage politically, but they are very wedded to the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. Hillary's slogan, Stronger Together, was literally directly lifted from SEIU. There was scandal in a number of big locals when the union endorsed Hillary, as she has been no friend to labor (serving on Walmart's board, etc., etc.).

In addition, the union is overall not interested or invested in real worker struggle. Again, there are a few locals that go against this, such as 1199 New England, but in general the union is heavily against striking or industrial action. It greatly favors corporate partnership agreements, where the union creates pro-business preconditions to any collective bargaining agreement which effectively put certain things workers might want off the table so as to induce corporations to go easier on union organizing. It's a strategy that maybe made sense at one point but it severely limits the effectiveness of the union in being a real vehicle for worker power long-term.

I can talk more about this if folks want, just PM me. If you are really interested I would highly recommend two books by Jane McAlevey, a labor organizer and leader who served as director of Nevada's big SEIU local. She has real-life examples of the problems with SEIU but also talks about the good things workers have been able to accomplish within it. They are both good books - Raising Expectations (And Raising Hell) and No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age - but I would recommend the first very highly.

EDIT: I do want to say that if you are looking to organize, it is worth calling them. I think I am probably too cynical from direct involvement in a lot of organizing, and I want to be clear that my views are just that. This current moment for the labor movement is probably the worst it's been in since the Red Scare at least, and a lot of big unions are just turtling up and trying to weather the storm. SEIU, to its credit, has still prioritized organizing and spends a lot of money on organizing efforts even if they won't lead to obvious wins for the union. Also, they do have a lot of resources which can be very helpful to being successful at organizing. The IWW is cool, but it is tiny (less than 3,000 members globally, most of whom are at-large members whose membership has nothing to do with working anywhere, which is fine but very different than most unions) and it has no resources. There are cool things going on with it, but if you are looking for a more traditional union organizing effort where you will get support in building an organizing committee and moving to an election and then negotiating a collective bargaining agreement, I would call SEIU or another large union that has some involvement in your industry.

Soooo I guess I basically just walked back my initial comment. Shit's complex, everyone.

Can you please elaborate on what specifically you're referring to as sweatshop labour? If you're talking about factory work like that in Shenzhen (Foxconn et al), I'm not sure I'd call that "sweatshop conditions", but I can at least answer your question if that's the context. So, assuming that's what you're referring to:

Let's start by looking at Shenzhen, which is a Special Economic Zone set up under the Reform and Opening (改革開放) period. Shenzhen was established as such at the end of the 1970s, and developed so rapidly from that time that it gained the nickname "the Overnight City". There are other factors such as geography which have contributed to its success, but the biggest factor is that the Central Government took a different free-market based approach. Shenzhen is home to many of the Taiwanese and Chinese factories that make your stuff. If you have an iPhone or a Galaxy, it probably came out of Shenzhen.

Shenzhen also has the reputation of the Overnight City for how quickly the population skyrocketed. Suddenly people from places like Sichuan and Anhui moved in to the city to find work, having fewer opportunities back home, and seeing the promises of economic success in the SEZs.

> What were migrant workers doing in China before these factories?

For starters, there were far fewer migrant workers in the past, and certainly before the 1980s, you didn't have people flocking to factories in other cities like you see in Shenzhen. Moving to other cities to find work was difficult and for many it would be impossible. But beyond that, the majority of migrant workers still don't end up in these Shenzhen-style factories. They go to places like Beijing to help on construction projects for the Olympics, or to Shanghai to help with the World's Fair, or to anywhere really to build roads and work in other industries. The Chinese New Year is the worlds largest human migration, and it happens every year, and it covers all of China. Here's a map of the migration. They're doing jobs all over the country in all areas of nonspecialised labour. Every major city has construction going on, and on every site, you'll hear dialects from all over the country. This is much of what the migrant workers are doing outside these places.

> What factors lead to them accepting these conditions?

In the news you sometimes hear about issues at Foxconn, the Taiwanese multinational most known for making Apple devices. You hear about terrible work conditions and suicides, which may be what prompted you to think of sweatshops. It's well known that workers in these factories typically have 6-day work weeks (itself not too uncommon in Asia) and long hours each day (again, not terribly uncommon, even for white collar workers).

The first thing to note is that for most of these workers, the worst entry-level job that you hear about most often in the news are only held by most workers for one or two years. After that, many try to find other jobs in the company, in other companies, or they move to another city and do something else entirely. The worst jobs are seen as just paying your dues to get your foot in the door. After that you have more opportunities to find work elsewhere. Many workers just come for one or two years anyway. In the pictures that come out of the factories, you'll notice many of the workers are in their late teens for these reasons. The populations in these places is constantly shifting, and no one stays in one place for very long.

There's a common phrase in Chinese: "For those that cannot endure suffering, suffering will last a lifetime; For those who are able to endure it, it is just a passing phase." The ability to endure suffering is highly regarded. If you know that your job of shining iPhone screens is just for a year and then you'll seek out a better situation, it's easier to put up with that year.

If you are interested in the topic of migrant workers and their conditions in South China, you should read Factory Girls by Leslie Chang. It follows the stories of a number of such workers, giving their personal accounts.

There are also a number of fantastic documentaries that follow the lives of migrant workers.

This post is a little rushed because I'm about just about on the way out the door. If anything is unclear, let me know and I can clear it up.

I'll answer very briefly, but /u/NoraTC covered a lot of really important things, the biggest being the variation in work. I'm answering as a line cook in what most would consider a good, upscale restaurant.

Working as a cook is both a tremendously rewarding and challenging proposition. The hours and schedule and pay aren't good. Many of your co-workers will be derelicts. It is hard, repetitive, stressful work. On the average day, you'll get there a couple hours before service (whether that means 4:00 am or 2:00 pm) and you'll get your station set. If your restaurant has lunch and dinner, you'll hope the person working the opposite shift didn't screw you over by using all your mise en place (abbreviated to meez generally). If so, hope you're good at what we'll call dispute resolution techniques. You need to make sure you're set for that day and you're staying ahead for the next few days too. Are there parties coming up? Better make sure you have what you need. If you have to rely on a sous chef to help you get set, it's bad news. The whole time, you'll be working quickly.

You eventually get to the point where your hands know what to do and your mind can wander a little. But you'll get done at whatever time and then go home exhausted. Usually, the managerial style is brusque. People get fired; practical jokes are played. The best source is Bill Buford's Heat, which is also an excellent read.

But despite its less great qualities, working in a kitchen can be really rewarding. It's satisfying to make stuff with your hands. See e.g. Shop Class as Soulcraft for more on this topic. The folks you'll work with form a real sense of camaraderie. It teaches you a lot about life. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely. I'm probably even happier I'm done with it.

Edit: One of the things that's really rewarding, but I didn't touch on above, is knowing you can do it. There's a lot in life where you get a participation award. In a kitchen, it's not like that. If you're good, you survive, then you thrive, then you move to a new station and figure shit out all over again. If you can't cut it, you're out.

I will echo what was already written, but I will address two major points. The first is your acute state of mental health, and the second is philosophical background on the question you asked concerning work.

If you are having suicidal ideation than you need to get help to stabilize. If its possible, talk to professionals, and develop a support network if possible, that knows how you feel. You need to disconnect from the 'conspiracy' world a bit, and focus on something positive. Enjoy nature, and engage in some activity where you are physically moving with people you love.

Books that are topical and I found very helpful, center around what the meaning of 'work', as a category that structures our world as it actually is. The first books is [Shop Class as Soulcraft]
(https://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467). In this work, the author, who actually worked for a Global Warming denial propaganda farm before quitting, engages in an exploration of the difference between skilled manual labor and unskilled labor, and what the differences are for being a human.

The second book, I am somewhat apprehensive to post, but I think it is really insightful. That is the 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of Marx, especially the section called, " Estranged Labour". It is an exploration of what work really is, as an activity that connects human beings, where we satisfy each others needs, and in doing so reproduce a social organism, and it is an exploration how we become alienated, and how these activities start to appear as forces outside of our control, that control us, and are deeply exploitative. They don't have to be that way.

I hope this was somewhat helpful, and I hope you feel better soon.

Not much here to offer in the way of advice but thought I'd express a bit of sympathy. I'm an electrician and naturally persuade people into working in a skilled trade. Maybe something to consider over retail until you get your ideal gig. Maybe climb the chain of another field of interest using existing skills while acquiring more. I love my job, fresh air, no customers, exercise, feeling of accomplishments... I'm testing for my Master Electrical License and would love to have your skills in addition to my own to aid in getting my company going and looking more professional right off the bat.

Best of luck friend, life isn't defined by falling down, it's defined by how you get back up. Read this while you ponder how you'll get back up http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

> If we could acknowledge that good people can unwittingly be part of a bad system, so that we could tackle the systemic issues without pointing fingers, then we could make some progress

Strong finish, and I hope we can all hop aboard that train. That said, time for some form finger pointing. (haha, apologies, sarcasm :-)

> The fact that the pay gap exists at all is a problem that needs solving.

The whole premise of the article is that there is no gap in pay, only differences in how one chooses to work. Apparently, studies show that men work longer hours, in more dangerous, uncomfortable jobs, and prioritize their job over family. Source: OP's article, and [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109) book, which I read ages ago. Yes, the title is highly unfortunate, may even strike one with modest sensibilities as grotesque. Its important to not that the author - a man - was once a prominent feminist, but who later because a Men's Rights Activist? Puke. I hate that term. It shouldn't have to exist, except for the unfortunate fact that it may have to soon.

All I'm saying is that much of the data in the article above is either old news; or else a better, more accurate analysis of old news (one should hope).

You may enjoy [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Never-Remember-Women-Forget-ebook/dp/B001LF3YHE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396987980&sr=1-1&keywords=why+men+never+remember) book as a way of approaching a common ground. I found it fascinating, and its been one of the most helpful books I've ever read.

In it you will find that there are very good reasons why a man is 4 times more likely to bargain over salary, and why a vast majority of engineers are men. It has far less to do with power structures or discrimination, and more to do with what testosterone does to the hominid brain. Most great mathematicians are male, and probably always will be. So also, most great serial killers and psychopaths are male, and always will be. In a vacuum, males will more naturally enjoy activities such an engineering, gaming, gambling, doing drugs, and other risky behavior. The reason for all of these attributes? Testosterone's impact on the brain! Dont believe me? Look it up!

Women use FAR more unique words per unit time, are FAR better in social situation, and, in my option, are the better half of humanity.

Buuuut, men and women are really fucking different! And, there are reasons for this. There are inherent differences between people, and the sexes. That's just the way it is.

Now, how does all of this all relate to creating a fair and equitable society? That is the tough part, and is open for debate.

As per this issue of why a "pay gap" exists. After reading this articles - and ones like it for the umpteenth time - I think its okay to entertain the idea that maybe the "pay-gap" has at least something to do with the inherently different choices either sex is likely to make.

Edit: spelling

Interesting thing about bikes, they get your adrenaline up, but also get cortisol up as well.

Burning through traffic at 100+mph is awesome, but guys who just get off their bikes tend to have their eyes bulging out of their heads. Great for energy, but the extra good vibes don't really come until you've come down. Someone advised me against getting a panigale because it would roast my nads, and there are motorcycle related ED issues with some models.

If you are going to ride, get involved with the new wave custom scene by getting a cheap machine and building it out. The physical knowledge will be the real transformative aspect. If you are intellectual, read "Shopclass as Soulcraft," and check out sites like BikeExif to get the idea.

Also, mandatory viewing includes:

• TRP meets HD
  
• "How to Ride Bitch,"
  
• "Waiting out Winter"
  
• "Baja Ride Documentary"
  
• "Making fun of Waiting out Winter"
  
• More bike snark, but funny bike snark.
  
• Long Live the Kings
  
  
  

Read this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Organizing-Social-Change-4th-Edition/dp/0984275215

It's pretty much a guide to accomplish that. This book is ESSENTIAL for people who want to enact change. As for media exposure?

1. Have a clear message.
   Decide what you are calling for and keep repeating it clearly and concisely. Don’t dilute strong arguments by going off on tangents or harping on trivialities. Relate your cause to everyday concerns. For example, if you’re campaigning for ethical investment, point out that it is financially viable and has a positive effect on the world. If you speak calmly and appeal to common understandings, radical ideas can appear not only sensible but even obvious.
   
   
2. Make media a priority.
   Effective campaigning means making media engagement a priority. I have often seen activists organize an event and then think about promoting it to the media. Put media at the center of your planning from the beginning.
   
   
3. Offer news.
   Something is news only if it is new. Discussions of opinions are not news—but you can make them news.
   
   
4. Watch your timing.
   If you are aiming for a weekly paper that goes to print on Tuesday afternoon, don’t hold an event on Tuesday evening. Be where journalists are, both literally and metaphorically. It’s difficult to get journalists to come to a protest outside a company’s offices, but if you demonstrate outside the company’s big annual meeting, business correspondents will already be there. Contact them in advance and there’s a good chance they’ll come over to speak with you.
   
   
5. Talk to journalists.
   It sounds obvious, but it is often overlooked. Issue a news release when you act or respond to events, but don’t rely on the release alone. Get on the phone with the journalists who have received it. Be concise and brace yourself for disappointments—most of them will not be interested. But chances are you will find someone who wants to know more eventually.
   
   
6. Build contacts.
   Go back to journalists every time you have a story, especially those who seemed interested earlier. If you’re concise and reliable, and give them good stories, they will soon be phoning you for comments. When this happens, make sure that someone is available. A good relationship with a few journalists is worth a thousand press releases.
   
   I understand that Suey not down with this. She's rather put people on blast on Twitter. Whatever, its 140 characters and offers reaction, not pro-action. Being proactive changes minds and attitudes.
   

>So I dropped out and learned a trade. Perhaps I am still not stimulated intellectually, but I am stimulated mentally by the pride I take in doing things with my own hands and watching them work and serve a purpose and the challenge inherent to doing something I am not used to doing (working manually). This, I think, is the real reason women are overrepresented in college : men are not interested anymore because they aren't challenged anymore. It's the same gold star for participation, sit down, shut up and regurgitate mentality that has been ruining education for decades and that women excel in because it furnishes them with attention for not doing anything of note.

Yup... nothing I can really add to that. Other than an upvote.

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Aw hell... I never could post a short comment like that in response. (LOL)

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"Intellectual stimulation" basically just isn't going to happen in most of modern (post modern) academia -- if it ever even really WAS that, it ain't no more -- now it's just become an second iteration of (public/compulsory) high school, the main goal (other than indenturing people into debt via a loan & tuition extraction machine) now seems to be to create an extended adolescence, and keep young people OUT of the workforce for as many years as possible.

If you're actually really intelligent (i.e. 2+ SD's above average) then you pretty much HAVE to be autodidactic -- seek your stimulation (and satisfaction) via independent reading/studying (in whatever the fuck interests you at any given time); and then engaging in various hobbies -- IMO you were entirely right to seek out manual "hands-on" trade work; there's something about actually BUILDING/CREATING (or even "fixing") complicated or "custom" things with both your hands AND your mind that banal "academic" crap just cannot achieve.

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By any chance have you ever read any of Matthew Crawford's books? I just finished his Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work piece... and it pretty much talks about and extends that very point; you might find that to be of interest.

Cheers!

• Jane McAlevey, the single most brilliant, provocative (in a great way), and incisive thinker and organizer on unions in the US. Wrote "No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age.". She makes excellent critiques of the fastfood strikes: fastfood organizing under the auspices of SEUI and AFL-CIO are often Public-Relations stunts that do not empower workers to take matters into their own hands, etc. She explains it far better than I can- listen to her interview on Behind the News with Doug Henwood (an excellent podcast for socialists btw).
  
  
• Cinzia Arruzza, organizer of May Day and International Working Women's Day actions in NYC, guest on Behind the News.
  
  
• Sam Miller, more of a Leninist, writes for Jacobinmag, has this excellent piece with Harrison Fluss on The Legacy of Eleanor Marx and her own piece on women in the alt-right: Lipstick Fascism
  
  
• Liza Featherstone, social-democratic writer for The Nation. She has a great socialist advice column. Here's an example, " Asking for a Friend: Is It Me or Is It Capitalism?:  In the first installment of our new advice column, Liza answers readers’ questions about depression and the ethics of cleaning apps." She also edited the compilation of essays "False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton" which also features Yasmin Nair and Belen Fernandez, mentioned below.
  
  
• Silvia Federici, Marxist Feminist, wrote the brilliant Caliban and the Witch, which you can read in full via Libcom and because she anti-copyrighted it. I have the paper edition, it'll radically change your understanding of the Witch Trials, medieval era, and the beginnings of capitalism or proto-capitalism. She really makes primitive accumulation so much more meaningful and consequential.
  
  
• Jodi Dean, writer of many books including The Communist Horizon, which I've read and is an excellent psychological analysis of Communist desire and organizational structure.
  
  
• Yasmin Nair, critic of bourgeois gay marriage equality, writer in Chicago.
  
  
• Belen Fernandez, wrote an excellent takedown of Thomas Ferguson and his neoliberalism, The Imperial Messenger. A delight to read.
  
  
• Melissa Gira Grant, frequent writer on sex work for Jacobin, critic of liberal anti-sex-worker do-gooders, wrote *Playing the W**e: The Work of Sex Work.

At the end of the day, women and women alone bear the decision to have a child so long as they have access to abortions. Men are not allowed, nor should they be allowed, to decide for a woman if she should bear a child or not. If she chooses adoption, all costs are paid by the parents. If she chooses to have a child, and if she chooses to include the father in that child's life (choices she alone makes) then the father must by law pay for a portion of the cost of that child.

I do think that single parenthood is an burden more so on the mother in most cases. This is one area we still need work on for both men and women, I agree. I personally am a proponent of a single payer health care system, which would mitigate the prenatal and OB issue altogether. But until that happens, health care will cost more for women because women cost more to maintain their health on average. If you don't like that then you have to overhaul the insurance industry to make everyone pay the same regardless of genetics. So the person with huge amounts of preexisting conditions due to genetics would pay the same as a very healthy person.

The book Why Men Earn More by Warren Ferrel has all the information you could ever want on the Wage Gap Myth. I did agree that a small number (around 5% I believe) is due to unknown causes which could be bias. But when you account for all other metrics, the 75 cents on the dollar is blown out of the water. We have laws making it illegal to discriminate against women, we have every ability to contest when we are paid less. It is our job as women to demand we get paid what we are worth, just as men tend to do.

The IWPR link was exactly the methodology I explained, and the gap is 80%. Median of all workers. That does not take into account career choices, hours worked, time off, education, etc.

IN the second link this quote is telling:
> And even in 2014, women and men still tend to work in different kinds of jobs. This segregation of occupations is a major factor behind the pay gap.

So again, boiling down to women's choices. And again, this report depended on median income alone, although they did at least break it down to basic industries. But again, we do not know all those mitigating factors which make a worker more valuable to a company.

Third source is the same. These are not telling us much of anything. The studies are too broad to be of use.

Interesting link about choices "A new survey from PayScale this morning finds that the wage gap nearly evaporates when you control for occupation and experience among the most common jobs, especially among less experienced workers."

I would certainly be interested in the residual pay gap especially at the top and take it seriously if we started the conversation on a national level with the actual facts. But the pervasive 75 cents on the dollar just won't die in the national consciousness even though it is absolute bunk.

My bottom line on wage gap- the sniff test. If it were truly so easy to save 25% of the costs of hiring someone, why would anyone hire a man? Business is all about the bottom line. If truly you could save that much money (we are probably talking billions of dollars for some companies) why on earth would they not be taking advantage of this? You think they are so sexist they are unwilling to save a ton of money? I think you underestimate most businesses joy of money.



Yes, there are far more men in politics, I never said otherwise. Nothing is stopping women from entering politics except their own choices. Women do not run for politics in very large numbers and women do not vote for other women in large numbers. This is not patriarchy, it is women's choices.

Women control the same amount of income in the US as men, so money is not stopping them. Yes, there probably is an old boys network among the older politicians, but there are enough women and progressives around to give a hand up to anyone interested in trying. The republican party is practically begging women to join, they flaunt every women politician they have in order to try to seem more supportive of women, even though they are obviously not in many ways.

So, I usually don't talk in r/politics, but I thought I might help you out.

Only around 4 and a half million workers in the U.S. are directly affected by minimum wage laws, and out of those 4mil, around half are under the age of 25, and most of those are part-time employees. Importantly, this doesn't really vary that much between racial groups, between women, or between job field (although entertainment industries are the top).

What does that mean? It means that if you eliminated the minimum wage laws and let businesses set their own wages based on the need, you would affect at minimum, around 4.5 million people who are likely in school, living with parents, and not providing care for a family or paying off any loans.

What could it do? Well, businesses could employ more people for low-paying jobs. In literal terms, movie theatres could have the option of throwing hordes of 16yr olds at a dirty theatre to clean it faster. Gas stations might be able to afford pump service. The list can go on. Why does that matter? Well, because teenage work has been shown to increase the wage that they can earn over their lifetime and reduce stress.

Hmm, how would I research this further? Well, thats a good question. You can actually look at some numbers like the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides for minimum wage and make decisions for yourself. You could also trust reporting like The New York Times, Forbes, or the Center for American Progress. Finally, you can read some books by researchers and experts in their fields, like Myth and Measurement, or Minimum Wages.

Be aware that the links above are not one-sided, there is still a lot of discussion going on, and the links show that. However, the statements I personally made are my conclusions from researching this topic. I hope it all helps.

For Trans liberation I would read Leslie Feinberg's Beyond Pink and Blue.

For Gay and Lesbian liberation I'd read Harry Hay's Radically Gay

On Feminism there's a lot. So you may want to grab Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex and Silvia Federici's Revolution at Point Zero. Both will give you a historical and economic understanding of women's struggle.

On the African struggle I would read Thomas Sankara's The Burkina Faso Revolution.

For the Indian struggle, I suggest Anuradha Ghandy's Scripting for Change if you can find a copy somewhere.

That's it for stuff outside of the purely economic sphere.

As for fiction that intersects with communism, I suggest Iain M. Banks's Culture Series. Considering Phlebas, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons. The late Banks did a tremendous job at portraying a classless, stateless, moneyless, post-scarcity society with access to cornucopia technology.

For generally entertaining Sci-Fi that'll keep you turning pages, and is also written in a non-traditional way, you have to read the Warhammer 40,000 Ciaphas Cain series. Get yourself the two omnibi Hero of the Imperium and Defender of the Imperium you'll enjoy yourself to no end. Commissar Ciaphas Cain just kicks all kinds of arse.

If you enjoy Fantasy, and want a bit with a Marxist Dragon, then I recommend Alan Dean Foster's The Spell Singer Adventures series. Specifically books 1 and 2, Spellsinger and The Hour of the Gate. It's also laugh out loud funny.

If you're more into old fashioned adventures, like Conan the Barbarian kind, then you need to read Michael Moorcocks's Elric series. You can get your toes wet with Elric: The Stealer of Souls. The stories are great fun, Elric is an absolute Byronic anti-hero, he's physically weak, he has to dope himself up, he causes the downfall of his own civilisation, and yet he's a great swordsman, poet, philosopher, and so on. Very much a nihilist, very much a tragic hero.

Finally if you want to delve into the Paranormal, and specifically into the romance category (and why not, I say?). I think you should absolutely read Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. Starting with Halfway to the Grave. Written by a woman, with a female protagonist, all from her first person perspective. It's a vampire story, and as far as the lore is concerned follows very closely to the White Wolf idea of the Masquerade. It's nothing like Twilight, you'll enjoy it and if you're like me, get hooked on the series.

Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story by David Maraniss is really good. It covers Detroit in the mid-1960s, when things were generally 'good,' but the cracks were already starting to show. One of my favorites I have read.

​

The absolute best for what you described is Origins of the Urban Crisis, which others have mentioned here.

​

I also recommend The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs. It talks about Detroit a lot, but isn't centered around Detroit, but it's very interesting. Her documentary is also on Netflix which I highly recommend, much more Detroit themed. She was a very influential person in Detroit and the United States in general, and I'm always shocked when I bring her up and people haven't even heard of her.

​

Oh and Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison by Shaka Senghor is very good. It's a memoir but it also talks about what Detroit was like in the 1980s and kind of gives you a feel for the era of Detroit that we all know about, but there aren't many stories about.

Don't fret... everyone loses interest in 3rd year. It's an international phenomena. Find a prof that you like and ask them for some inspiration. Make yourself a design goal and accomplish it. What got me through my tough times was a shift of focus to philosophy and theory. It gave me something to love when studio was failing to hold my interest.

If you really just can't make yourself get into a project, you could try treating your design project as an art project and make the most beautiful graphics possible to convey a simple design solution. It will push your graphic limits and lead you to come up with more effective ways of visualizing an idea.

Also, try looking into aspects of architecture that aren't "architecture school"... like the trades. After finishing my masters degree I worked in an office for a short bit before deciding it wasn't for me. Now I'm a wood worker and am much happier for it. I dabbled in woodworking all through my education and focused my master's thesis on craftsmanship, so it was a fitting transition. I'm now the only person in a woodworking shop with actual design training and the only person with an advanced understanding of the architectural process. I'm also the only one who can really use computer graphics and design tools.

Random: Check out this book.

Hang in there.

Most of the reporting you see on this stuff tends to ignore most factors which would tend to explain differences in income for different work. So it's a god of the gaps argument that you are (unwittingly?) making. If we take into account one or two things the "gap" shrinks, if we take account one or two more it shrinks further, if we take account of five or six there's maybe 5% left. And then we stop because that way leads to trouble.

So Warren Farrel identified about 20-30 factors to take into account. This included some that even by themselves reduced the gap's size of the order of over 90%. Obviously there's a lot of overlap. The point is that no study has attempted to do what you say and take into account, "all the other factors". Not even close. The studies don't even take into account the factors which are greatest in reducing the gap.

As a result your figure of 10% or so was pure bullshit. Mine was too; the data just isn't there. However the end result is certainly in favour of women because women have a greater value than men as employees because of the various anti-male laws feminists have introduced. You can certainly find some studies that result in a negative wage gap although it's usually more like 2%, but for the most part the research here is chasing ghosts. Indeed literally it uses the same technique as ghost hunters: throw out a few sensible sounding ideas for a phenomena, then after rejecting them say "therefore the answer must be ghosts" as an explanation for any remaining phenomena.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109

The single factors that tend to explain almost the entire gap by themselves tend to be something along the lines of comparing like with like as to family earning responsibilities. That is to say childless unmarried men and women tend to earn the same. Once people get married and have kids women choose to earn less and force the men to pick up the slack by earning more. So the pay gap is essentially a result of anti-male discrimination forcing men to work harder to support women's choices.

As a result you get odd results of things like black women earning more than white women (if you take into account education level) and lesbians out-earning straight women. I would explain these results in terms of the responsible-to-earn for someone else's consumption factor.

Hmm. Hard to find a nice link to a study on this one factor. But it typically knock out over 90% just by itself. These days if you Google those terms you get the various studies showing how much more young women are earning compared to young men. Of course that's mostly because women are 60% more likely to go to college.

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ETA: Also the wage gap is smaller in developing countries than in the West. As a general rule of thumb the better off you are in terms of privilege, the less you can afford to earn, which is why white women have the biggest "gap" of all. The entire topic misrepresents privilege as a oppression, which is exactly what you need to do if you're a feminist of course.

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ETA: Yeah I can't find any nice reports on family responsibility as a factor (usually it's referred to as "unmarried, childless"). It was common enough 20 years ago but these days the search results get swamped by by the stories of YOUNG and "unmarried, childless" women earning about 8% more than men. But as I say this is really more because women are getting college degrees far more than men are due to the massive amount of sex discrimination in education in the USA (though these results hold all over the English speaking world). maybe you'll have better luck if you want to pursue it.

Depends on which type of "marxism" we're talking, if we're talking about "Libertarian marxism" like say autonomist marxism (or some old libertarian marxist like the famous William Morris or someone like Paul Lafargue) , then sure it's compatible.

Willian Morris wrote the old Useful work versus useless toil, and there's funny and controversial stuff like Paul Lafargue's The right to be lazy.

Harry Cleaver's Reading capital politically is a good introduction into this sort of stuff.

If you're interested there's also Cleaver's upcoming book "Rupturing the Dialectic: The Struggle against Work, Money, and Financialization", which I think is very different and really better than his first one.



Some marxists like Silvia Federici are kind of pro-ubi, her book Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle is basically about arguing for something like a UBI.


(There's also David Frayne's "The Refusal of Work: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work" which is not explicitly marxist but is a joy to read).






Massimo De Angelis (another libertarian marxist who kind supports UBI) is writing a book titled "Omnia Sunt Communia: The Strategy for Postcapitalism", which is probably going to be better than Paul Mason's book if you're interested in that sort of stuff.




There's also Moishe Postone's stuff like Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory, which is also quite compatible with the goals of a UBI.


Kathi Weeks (author of "The Problem with Work") is another marxist and UBI advocate.

Erich Fromm supported a UBI way back in the day.

Regarding some of the other suggestions so far: Reading Payne's book is fine, but keep in mind that her work is quite controversial. Moreover, much her work is self-published. There are many who feel her research lacks the academic rigor typically found in a field where research is peer-reviewed/published. Plus, there's also the profit motive, since she sets up workshops around the country and does quite well for herself. I'm not saying this is inherently wrong, but just to keep this in mind.

"The Invisible Thread" was an enjoyable read, although I found it to be a bit contrived. It's a feel good story, but I don't think you'll learn all that much from it.

Here are some additional suggestions going from more academic to less. Honestly though, to truly understand poverty from a big picture standpoint, it's best to draw from a wide range of topics and scholars.

The Origins of the Urban Crisis, by Thomas Sugrue. Pretty much required reading for those studying the roots of poverty in America. You'll learn about various factors like segregation, redlining, and other urban policies have formed the historical foundation for the cycle of intergenerational poverty that reverberates to this day. It's academic, but not nearly as bad as a lot of journals.

More Than Just Race, by William Julius Wilson. He actually has numerous books in this field that are great. As an African American and Harvard sociology professor, he has quite a bit of credibility in this field. That said, he does face some criticism, as his approach leans heavily toward structural factors and is said to be overly deterministic. Note, however, that just about every scholar has critics.

Chutes and Ladders: Navigating the Low-Wage Labor Market, by Katherine Newman. This is a bit more accessible and personal, as she uses ethnographic portraits to complement facts and figures, giving the narrative a more personal feel, and offering readers real people they can empathize with.

There Are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz. This is a non-fiction book by an investigative journalist that is meant to be read by the masses, making it far more accessible. Great stuff.

The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore. An accessible autobiographical account of two boys name Wes Moore, both of whom grew up minutes away from each other, but ended up taking very different life paths.

By the way, where in the midwest are you? I just moved to Iowa City a week ago. The weather here is...weird. Everyone is warning me of the winters here.

Have you ever heard of Mondragon?

It's the world's largest network of worker owned, democratically controlled businesses, a couple hundred associated cooperatives, with over 80,000 worker members controlling the companies through the principle of one person, one vote.

Whenever a millionaire/billionaire IAMA comes up, I always share this info in the hope that they will become interested in and support the cooperative movement. I think that these cooperatives give the lie to a lot of ideology/mythology that emphasizes the unique exceptionalism of the elite controlling class, and point the way to how a more balanced, equitable, healthy and humane world economy could be organized. I think it's also pretty urgent, considering the trajectory our species is on.

A really good book on the subject of Mondragon is
Making Mondragon: the growth and dynamics of the worker cooperative complex

Let's stop and think about this for a second. How much does it cost a school to equip a computer lab? You have to figure in the cost of the machines themselves, the network infrastructure, ongoing IT labor, bandwidth, repair and maintenance, and a replacement cycle cost. At our middle school this runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I would argue that you could easily equip an auto shop for the kind of money we now routinely invest in computer labs in the US. The sad truth is that the dominant educational model in some schools in the US is now "Everyone MUST go to college" regardless of whether that makes sense for the kid. Where I teach, saying the opposite is the equivalent of farting in church, or worse. Yet I teach a definite population of kids who would be far better off, and happier, learning a skilled trade, and they would be fine and quite employable after graduating high school if they could do it at that age. I like to say that my plumber makes more money than I do, and I have three college degrees.

I am glad to read elsewhere on this thread that there ARE high schools with good Vo-Tech programs (here they call it "Career Technical Education"). For a really intelligent take on this issue, see this great book by Matthew B. Crawford. He was a PhD think-tank guy who dropped out of the consulting and brain biz to open a motorcycle repair shop. Great stuff.

Men do not "get paid" more, they choose to EARN more on a playing field that is tilted toward women. Yes, men are more than 17 times more likely to die at work. They constitute a similar percentage of workplace accidents that do not result in death. Yet they take far fewer sick days, make fewer insurance claims, including worker's compensation, and so on (relative to events), meaning women receive a disproportionate share of employer-funded healthcare (government healthcare also, but that's another story), while doing considerably less than a proportional share of the work. Consider the research done at the University of Washington in the Department of Vocational Rehab. If a worker takes paid time off for "carpal tunnel syndrome" there is an overwhelming and statistically significant prediction you can make about the worker: It's a woman. All of those paid days off are funded primarily by men, and enjoyed primarily by women. If perquisites are distributed in this way, one must consider that if women's cash earnings are 2% more per hour, their total compensation, including perks, is much more.

Add to that the fact that women take fewer entrepreneurial risks. While they control more capital than men, they like bonds, not starting new businesses. Of course this moves the average earnings of men up relative to women, but does not indicate they are victims of discrimination. In fact, it could be said to indicate that they take an equal or greater share of the benefits of living in a country where men increase the GDP, pay taxes that provide good schools, safe air travel, and medical research, but they are unwilling to contribute equally in sacrifice and risk.

See this landmark books for a deep investigation of why men don't merely receive more in wages and salaries, but why men EARN more in wages and salaries: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1310457878&sr=8-5. Then teach your children the meaning of equality.

This actually had nothing to do with unions at the outset. The tradition predates unions by quite a bit. It started with immense economic opportunity driven by cheap land and labor shortages. This tied with English traditions about individualism and free labor.

Unlike workers all over the world, Americans have a tradition of not being bound to one particular job or employer. At will employment benefits the workers when you live in a land of scarce labor, immense availability of land, and enormous opportunity. The conflict between free labor traditions in the North and unfree labor traditions in the South (enabled by a color-coded slave system) was one of the most important tensions between ~1820-1865.

Now, as immigration increases (more labor available) and the opportunity to get new land or new jobs goes down (no more frontier and increasing urbanization and mechanization), then at will employment now benefits employers more. But this was not the case for much of U.S. history.

Citations:
Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War (available at
https://www.amazon.com/Free-Soil-Labor-Men-Republican/dp/0195094972

Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (https://www.amazon.com/American-Slavery-Freedom-Edmund-Morgan/dp/039332494X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538998439&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=american+slavery%2C+american+freedom&dpPl=1&dpID=51h4aolAGJL&ref=plSrch#immersive-view_1538998477709)

Here's a list, off the top of my head - I know all these are on my bookshelf, but I'm probably missing a few more:

Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club by Sonny Barger

Freedom: Credos from the Road by Sonny Barger

Ridin' High, Livin' Free: Hell-Raising Motorcycle Stories by Ralph Sonny Barger

Dead in 5 Heartbeats by Sonny Barger

Under and Alone by William Queen

No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels by Jay Dobyns

Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library) by Hunter S. Thompson

Street Justice by Chuck Zito

The Original Wild Ones: Tales of the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club by Bill Hayes

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart

The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa by Neil Peart

Against the Wind: A Rider's Account of the Incredible Iron Butt Rally by Ron Ayres

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford

Honda CB750: The Complete Story by Mark Haycoc

Shovelhead Red The Drifter's Way by Roy Yelverton

Shovelhead Red-Ridin' Out by Roy Yelverton

A Twist of the Wrist 2: The Basics of High-Performan​ce Motorcycle Riding by Keith Code

Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques by Lee Parks


Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig - Still my favorite. A high school english teacher bought it for me when he found out I had just passed my motorcycle road test. I've read it at least 15 times, and get something new from it each time.


But the best recommendation - Buy the FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL for your bike and read it. Read it often, until you can almost turn to the exact page for each procedure.

I didn't think about it either until I read the book Factory Girls, which is about all the women in China who are leaving the countryside to work in factories in the city. One of the effects of this is that women are choosing to get married later. They enjoy having their own independence and money. And since many of them are sending money home to support their families, they now have a lot of power in the family dynamic that they didn't have before because they were female. It's a really interesting book.

I was thinking that the same thing has happened here too. More women are choosing to have careers and financial independence. I didn't get married until I was 33. And like you, I worked full time and owned a home. I didn't have to rely on a man to support me. I really didn't expect to get married either. But I had the freedom to marry or not marry based on my career and my financial situation.

I don't think the racial issues are the sole problem plaguing Detroit, only that they were the first major problem in a long line of issues that have plagued that city for fifty something years. Hence their being the "spark," but not the sole cause. Other cities, like LA for instance, have had greater capital investment, more stable and sustainable economic bases, etc., and that's why sprawl and suburbanization affected them differently. And you're right, there were other reasons for suburbanization than simply race, but race was one of the major factors.

Quite frankly, the main reason I felt the need to highlight race is that there is this eagerness to completely dismiss it among a lot of people, because a lot of people don't want to deal with it. The person who posted above and started this discussion turned out to be a little extreme and painfully blinkered, but I saw where this was leading and felt inclined to jump in. There's often a lack of mature discussion about the issue on here, just a lot of people jumping down each other's throats.

Edit: further comments on LA I forgot to add -- I think that greater stability is a major factor in why they've been able to weather riots and their consequences. There were much fewer reasons for people to invest in Detroit than places like LA. And obviously LA is sustainable in an environmental sense. There's also a pretty good book on all of this in Detroit, and it does a good job of highlighting all of the factors involved (not just race): http://www.amazon.com/The-Origins-Urban-Crisis-Inequality/dp/0691162557.

How to Win Friends and Influence people simple tips on how to be a better human being

The Richest Man in Babylon Simple tips to keep and grow the money you have

Factory Girls true stories of the modern Chinese migration of young women from rural farm areas to cites to work in factories

Hyperspace "Wil Wheaton recommended" blow your mind with science!

This compilation looks good. There's also the classic Chomsky Reader which was my introduction.

Chomsky can be a lttle tough to read, especially the later stuff. The earlier books are quite readable, but starting in the mid-80s it get a bit tougher. He's really at his best in spontaneous interviews. Here is a transcript of an early talk he gave, it lays out his personal political philosophy and its roots very clearly.

This book is my own personal favorite, a big collection of transcripts covering just about everything, even some linguistics.

This is such an old-school answer. Nice.

To go even further, I'd point out that this is specifically the best example of why the unemployment rate can be misleading in terms of national welfare as a whole. Unemployment within a family supports greater employment within other members of the same family. When the figures report either one or two employed people, it misses out on the counter factual. Having an unemployed person living in your house lowers the cost of being away from the house, so the employed person can work more hours and save money on things like childcare and having to eat out all the time.

Katherine Newman actually wrote a book that profiles a number of low-wage workers and finds some fascinating patterns about how their wellbeing either improved or fell during the recession. What stuck out to me the most was the idea that low wage workers were often successful in improving their job status if they had someone to support them while they took time off to invest in training and accreditation. It changed how I think about unemployment. Especially when you have extended families living in close proximity, there's an optimal number of workers, and it's often not the maximum number.

Wow. So there's a lot here - are you asking for purely written books or are websites OK?

First, look in your local bookstore! That being said, Amazon has a ton (these are ones I've read):

Gar Alperovitz - America Beyond Capitalism

William Whyte - Making Mondragon

Marina Sitrin - Horizontalism

Frank T Adams - Putting Democracy to Work

Encrico Masseti - Coop: Made in the USA

Seymour Melman - After Capitalism: From Managerialism to Workplace Democracy

David Schweickart - After Capitalism


Also, take a look at this PDF on Tech Worker coops which I contributed to.

Amazon has a bunch I haven't read.


Websites (which list quite a few books/articles relevant here):

http://usworker.coop/education
http://usworker.coop/faceted_search/

http://www.american.coop/
http://american.coop/node/119

http://www.geo.coop/
http://www.geo.coop/replication-of-arizmendi

And finally, the article that got me started on the road to cooperating:
A Cooperative Manifesto by Tim Huet.

Films - there are a lot, but the only ones that are easy to get a hold of are:

The Take

Capitalism: A Love Story - though this only has a small portion on coops and some more in the extras

Some More:

This Way Out

Shift Change - not out yet but based on the trailer it looks off the hook.

Argentina Turning Around

also in IT, checking in. Just finished re-reading this book which does a pretty great job of explaining why us IT types are drawn to physical creation in our free time. also available in audio book if you like to listen to stuff in the shop. really worth a read. it will change the way you think about business today.

http://smile.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467?sa-no-redirect=1

I would suggest a very interesting book about this. It's called Shop class as soul craft by Matthew B. Crawford : http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

The book was written by a PhD in philosophy who left his university to open a motorcycle shop. He says the challenges of blue collar jobs are way more rewarding than working in thoughts all day long. The book was great and well written, definitely red pill.

The Fall of the House of Labor by David Montgomery

Noam Chomsky calls this man the greatest labor historian. Here's his book that covers the real start of the labor movement, up until the US government becomes scared of the labor movement, and largely the IWW, and crushes it.

From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend by Priscilla Murrolo, A. B. Chitty, and Joe Sacco

Another general book on unions in the US.

History of the Labor Movement in the United States: The Industrial Workers of the World by Philip S. Foner

Philip S. Foner has written more than 8 extensive books on the history of labor in the US. Here's his book on the IWW.

The Industrial Workers of the World: Its First 100 Years by Fred Thompson

This one comes from the IWW itself.

Here's chapter 13 of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, titled A Socialist Challenge. He concentrates on the beginning of the 20th century as a whole, and the role that socialist organizations like the IWW played. But it's a beautiful introduction to the names and events you may dig more deeply into with the other books. You can read the entire book on that website, and you should if you haven't. It is required reading for any socialist who wants to understand the history of the US.

Finally, here is Labor History Links, the most extensive labor history website ever created. The amount of information and primary documents here is staggering. You can click on the chronological tab at the top, and it will take you to the page with links to pieces of labor history throughout the development of the US. Search for the IWW in your browser or any related terms, and have a blast.

Only going off your citation, I'm pretty sure that is comparing private industry wages and the wages at non-private industry, which are the Stated Owned Enterprises. It is reasonable the SOEs pay more, but the SOEs are widely regarded as not being sustainable - they take in more than they output, and only survive off of government subsidies. I do not believe the quote is comparing private manufacturing to agricultural work.

So even if the citation is true, which I dont contend it is, it is not an argument against private manufacturing.

I agree there is unacceptable exploitation (such as places that dont let their workers leave or do things like in-debt them), but I do not believe it is the majority. A great book on the matter is Factory Girls, by Leslie Chang, which explains that, on average, conditons in the factories are worse than we have in the US or Europe, but they are better than what the alternative village life is and people willingly go, not out of necessity but out of idleness. In fact, the largest human migration in history is currently happening between Chinese villagers and the coastal cities.

http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Girls-Village-Changing-China/dp/0385520182/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427836139&sr=1-1&keywords=factory+girls

If you're not familiar, and have any interest, I found this to be a good but accessible overview

https://www.amazon.com/1848-Year-Revolution-Mike-Rapport/dp/0465020674/

It's a fascinating period, revolutions throughout Europe. Similar to the Arab Spring, and about as successful.

'Strong Agree', especially the latter part

This is a bit of a tangent, but one speech I always give to people wanting to dismantle capitalism, is to remind them that the root causes of labor alienation really wouldn't be solved by collective ownership. Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital discusses this at length, showing that one of the big undressed issues of labor organization is that most jobs are being continually subdivided to allow for more efficiency, at the sake of the autonomy or agency of the worker. Work becomes less existentially fulfilling as efficiency increases, except in the case of special knowledge industries which are resistant to this. Every conception of capitalism-dismantling socialism/communism I have seen ignores this, and all they would do would be to create a society where the majority is stuck performing equally unappealing labor for slightly more equally distributed rewards, in an overall under-efficient economic system.

Pulitzer Prizewinner Studs Terkel wrote a similar book years ago called "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do." I read it on my own in high school, and it was a great introduction to the real world. It was originally written over 35 years ago, so he wouldn't have interviewed people who worked as web designers or video game testers, unless there is an updated edition.

JoeSki42's recommendation sounds like a winner too.

> hundred year old talking points

Official redlining didn't start until 1934. Other forms of discrimination and segregation existed during that same time period. For example, the realtors association of Grosse Pointe had an informal racial point system until the 1960s. This is hardly a hundred-year-old issue. Elderly people alive today spent a good portion of their lives living under these conditions. There are plenty of excellent, thoroughly-sourced books on the subject. Enjoy!

1 2 3 4

p.s. Wealth may not last for three generations, but that doesn't necessarily mean that poverty (and its effect) also does not last for three generations. It's much easier to lose wealth than it is to gain it in the first place.

You should read this book.

> > Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War

If you choose to read it, I would love to have a conversation with you about it again.

If you are really interesting in all this i recommend reading "Factory Girls"
http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Girls-Village-Changing-China/dp/0385520182

• Workers are not "married to their company", it the opposite it probably closer to the truth. At the time the book was written (and for sure this film was shot) it was a sellers market. Workers jump between factories as they please, looking for the best conditions and pay. As this documentary mentioned a few time the initiatives taken by the factory to keep workers from leaving, like cheap accommodation, pretty good looking food, sport facilities, paid wedding festivities etc. Now this might have changed with the economic downturn.
  
• Workers are incredibly motivated to get a better life. It often just takes them weeks on the factory floor to move up in ranks. They do all they can in evening courses to make up for missing computer and english language skills. If you read the book that i mentioned you often hear their stories and think "ah okay that was a year later when she moved up" but in fact it's only been weeks.
  
• You hear about overtime and all those hard conditions (okay not in this doc but in general), but you forget that workers want to hustle hard. They want to make the most in the shortest possible time, to be able to move up the ladder. Million have made it out of poverty into a middle class in the last decades.
  
  So yeah this documentary is interesting in the visual parts, showing the dimensions of things and how integrated those factories are but it failed to make the viewer understand what truly drives the workers.

You must really love what you do to put that much of your life into it. It's great that it lead you to Buddhism too. If you want to share the info on your store, I'll be sure to check you first if I ever need some quality wood work. I'm in the market for a house/home at the moment, so I'm pretty serious. Do you build tinyhouses?

Also, here's a book I've never read, but it looks like its right up your alley:

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work

https://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485716747&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=shoplass+as+soulcraft

Vous voyez ce qui se passe quand on laisse des entreprises en concurrence à l'heure ou les gains de productivités son faible ? Dilemme du prisonnier classique :

• 1: le pays voisin baisse sa fiscalité sur les entreprises / système de cotisation / fait pression sur les salaires (déflation compétitive : ne pas monter les salaires quand tout les partenaires économiques le fond = revenir a baisser ses salaires / mais aussi trouver défiscaliser les heures supplémentaires, etc). On appelle ça la rigueur. Il gagne en compétitivité.
  
  
• 2 : je pers en compétitivité, donc je dois faire la même si je veux que mes entreprises restent compétitif.
  
  
• 3 : mon voisin tire la gueule, et fait la même chose. Le vocabulaire change, on se met a parler de réforme (c'est plus sexy, et on arrive a faire croire que c'est nécessaire et qu'il n'y a pas le choix).
  
  ... pas la peine de détailler la suite. On est dedans depuis les années 70/80.
  
  La solution serait bien sur une organisation entre état pour gérer les différences de compétitivités des différents pays et éviter de tomber dans ce piège... mais ça l'UE le fait pas (et sans rentrer dans des détails techniques, la zone euro accentue le problème).
  
  Maintenant Macron propose la même chose, mais dans un même pays. Donc les entreprises qui n'ont pas de concurrences extérieurs et qui échappaient a cette logique néfaste (protéger par une organisation qui imposent un code du travail unique pour tout le monde, appelé état, par le truchement du code du travail) vont pouvoir faire la même logique au sein d'un pays (on appel ça renverser la hiérarchie des normes). Et le clou du spectacle : syndicats et ouvriers/employés vont voté eux même pour se tirer une balle dans le pied (bah oui, il y aura toujours une entreprise pour aller plus loin que les autres; les autres n'auront plus le choix, voter pour garder son travail en dégradant ses conditions de travail comme les Allemands).
  
  A l'heure il faudrait qu'on s'organise collectivement (au sein de l'UE pour commencer) pour garantir un travail, des conditions de travail et un revenu correcte a tous on applique la pire des solutions : celle qui conduit mathématiquement a une baisse de la qualité de vie des populations les plus vulnérable. Tout ça à cause d'une croyance tenace : la compétition créer de la richesse (sauf que aujourd'hui la compétition c'est le management, le coût du travail, et l'automation - la compétition fut une bonne chose dans le passé, car elle se faisait sur les gains de productivités grâce aux innovations et inventions technologiques, ce qui n'est plus le cas depuis les années 70 parce que la productivité a chuté, le tout amplifié par une tertiarisation de l'économie).
  
  Espérer une gauche forte, parce que l'extrême droite attend au tournant... quand le chômage grimpe, quand la misère devient la norme, quand les droits du travailleurs sont détruit le discours de stigmatisation de l'autre devient vite populaire... la classe moyenne s'éffrondre, et elle ne pourra plus tenir le FN en joue infiniment...
  
  Conseils de lecture :
  
  
  A. Une personne qui a théorisé le Précariat en 2011, et qui montrait déjà que l'extrême droite montait et allait continuer de le faire assez logiquement.
  
  B. Un petit ouvrage sur la théorie de la régulation.
  
  C. Un peu vieux, mais bon, on s'en lasse pas de comprendre les origines de notre modèle économique, ou de se rappeler que le travail n'existaient pas il y a 3 siècle. Ha et un rappel des conséquences d'un modèle économique qui ne marche pas, qui est inégalitaire, et qui laisse les gens sur le carreau.
  
  D. Comprendre pourquoi on ne remet plus en cause le capitalisme, malgré les faiblesses qu'il a.
  
  Edit : il est marrant le livre sur la théorie de la régulation. Ils montrent qu'une financiarisation de l'économie créer de l'instabilité si elle s'accompagne de mesure pour flexibilisé le travail (et d'autre joyeuseté, comme celle d'augmenter les importations et de créer des balances commerciale déficitaires).
  
  

For the uninitiated, here's a general rundown on Guy Standing's restructure of the classes in an effort to accommodate the effects of globalization:

>"At the top is an elite of billionaires and such like. Below them is a salariat, comfortable but limited in numbers, with employment security and an array of non-wage benefits. Then there is a growing body of what could be called proficians – professionals and technicians usually receiving high incomes, but without employment security. Below them in terms of income is the old, a shrinking industrial working class, not yet dead, but dying. Those in the core are fearful of dropping into the next and rapidly growing class fragment, what should be seen as the global precariat. Below the precariat are the chronically unemployed and a lumpenised minority of socially wretched people."

If this interests you, give his two books a read: The Precariat and A Precariat Charter.

>Are you a member of the precariat, or do you think someone you know is?

Yeah. Anecdotally, one thing I've noticed with people I know is that the idea of even being a wage-slave is becoming a much sought-after privilege. Neoliberal Capitalism is regressing us economically to the middle ages (much to our neoreactionary friends' delight) and it doesn't take an accelerationist to tell you that there's not much we can do to stop its effects at this point because we're already feeling it. Otherwise this new class wouldn't exist, the bourgeoisie wouldn't be dissolving and automation wouldn't be a talking point for every would-be leftist today. People's understanding of class struggle is only going to become even more warped as time goes on.

>How would you include this new class in the struggle for a better life?

The Precariat is defined by its global, highly connected nature. When Occupy happened, I can't think of any other social movement in history that indexed so many splinter groups across the world after the first week. Alter-Globalization and #EuroMayDay come to mind but I don't think they ever reached the level as Occupy has since the decade started. Unions have failed to respond to the needs and aspirations of the Precariat because they still think a corpse is worth fighting for. In my opinion, the formation of the Precariat is the biggest motivator to abolish work and further create automated systems to better utilize anarchist ideals - as soon there won't be any industrial workers of the world to unite in the first place.

Kind of tough to pick just one, as China is vast and there are so many differect aspects of the society worthy of being explored.

I really enjoyed Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside, which was a pretty solid caricature of just about every type of foreigner you meet in China, and a well written story as well, a bit like a more modern, more dynamic River Town.

I think the two most common answers to this question are River Town, by Peter Hessler, and Factory Girls by his wife Leslie Chang. Both are excellent but tackle very different parts of contemporary Chiense culture.

A touch of sin was already mentioned, and it's a very, very good movie. So I'm mentioning it again. If you haven't seen it, go watch it.

> Women are statistically more likely to depend on their husband's wealth because (surprise surprise you moron) WOMEN MAKE LESS MONEY.

Hypergamy

> A woman with no money of her own is either homeless or somebody's wife. If she's convicted of a crime it's usually because she was an accomplice.

Married women don't have agency or free will, then? Okay. You're also forgetting that women have priority in social housing queues, especially if they have kids. All kinds of unmarried women, with or without kids, in geared-to-income social housing. Oh, I get it. Leaving a criminal's house to spend a couple months in a shelter before getting her own place just isn't an option. Better to have the criminal buy you shiny things, then play stupid or fake-cry in the courtroom than have morals, I guess.

> employment status of the husband in a relationship is the single outsize factor in predicting divorce.

Husband is required to be breadwinner, to maintain the hypergamous status of the relationship, and is disposed of as soon as this is lost. So far, you're doing a great job of upholding traditional gender roles, and positioning women as the weaker sex who can't make their own decisions. Well, aside from the part where the woman keeps half or better of the assets in a divorce, and bleeds the rest out through alimony and/or child support.

> You may find a screenshot from /pol/ or an article on Breitbart that claims to disprove it, but adults have accepted the wage gap is reality.

Nice Drumpfy Drumpf poltard projection. Here's a whole book by an adult.

> peer-reviewed study

I've seen enough of RealPeerReview to know that "peer-reviewed" in the social sciences doesn't mean shit. American Association of University Women? Yeah, no bias there. I like the part where their CEO is a fucking white male, though.

So, literally stop. I'm embarassed for you when you simultaneously cry about the "wage gap" and expect it to persist for your benefit.

>A woman told me that the fields females pick to work in are paid less BECAUSE women dominate those fields.

I'd love to see her proof for this claim, because there is plenty to the contrary. I'll share with you the same sources I post when I see topics regarding the wage gap:

___
Studies

An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity
in Wages Between Men and Women
Gender Pay Gap in the Federal Workforce Narrows as Differences in Occupation, Education, and Experience Diminish
The Gender Pay Gap - Have Women Gone As Far As They Can?

Articles

NCPA - The Wage Gap Myth
Forbes - It's Time That We End the Equal Pay Myth
AEI - A Quick Fix For The Gender Wage Gap
CBS News - The Gender Pay Gap is a Complete Myth
Trigger Alert Blog - The Almighty Wage Gap - A Comprehensive Analysis
Market Watch - The Gender Wage Gap is a Myth
AEI - The Gender Wage Gap Myth
Huffington Post - The Wage Gap Myth Exposed - By Feminists
Freakonomics - Goldin and Katz on the Male-Female Wage Gap
Real Clear Markets - [White House, Women's Wages, Myths] (http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2011/03/03/white_house_womens_wages_myths_98895.html)

Videos

Straight Talk About The Wage Gap [3:00]
Do Women Earn Less Than Men? [4:00]
John Stossel - The Gender Pay Gap [10:36]
Why Men Earn More - The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap [1:16:11]
The Gender Wage Gap is a Myth [2:21]
Thomas Sowell - Gender Bias and Income Disparity: A Myth? [3:30]
The Gender Wage Gap Uses Bogus Statistics [4:45]
The Pay Inequality Myth: Women are More Equal Than You Think [2:37]

Audio

The Myth of the Male/Female Wage Gap by Thomas J. DiLorenzo [7:49]

Books

Warren Farrell - Why Men Earn More

You think the US government's demonization of anarchists only started 100 years ago? Naw, it started way before that. See: the Haymarket Affair. Also, this is a great book on the whole event, which was a huge deal at the time and international news. It's also legitimately one of the best books I've ever read.

There's a wonderful book called Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. One of the things I learned from it was that shop class was invented to try to instill a sense of craftsmanship and pride into a population that had known only soul-numbing assembly-line work, so that they would do a better job at the soul-numbing assembly-line work.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: http://smile.amazon.com/From-Folks-Who-Brought-Weekend/dp/1565847768


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|smile.amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
|Spain|www.amazon.es||
|France|www.amazon.fr||
|Germany|www.amazon.de||
|Japan|www.amazon.co.jp||
|Canada|www.amazon.ca||
|Italy|www.amazon.it||
|India|www.amazon.in||
|China|www.amazon.cn||




To help add charity links, please have a look at this thread.

This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

It was a confluence of influences: post-war access to higher education made "manual arts" (i.e. blue collar labor) less appealing to the growing middle class, unions declined from the 1970s forward (further undercutting such work), the trades in general have been devalued through emphasis on white collar work, machines/robots replaced many line jobs in factories, we stopped making "stuff" domestically, and probably most importantly, all those white-collar dads among the Boomers were simply unable/uninterested in teaching their kids any of the skills once reflected in "shop" classes.

Add in major liability concerns about letting kids handle real tools, the cost of insurance, the cost of facilities, and in more recent years the pernicious influence of No Child Left Behind (which only values "skills" that can be assessed through standardized tests) and you see the end of shop class in general.

There's a great discussion of these general trends and the value of manual labor in the book Shopcraft as Soulcraft that I highly recommend.

For inspiration on this project, I highly recommend Working by Studds Terkel which is a set of actual interviews of people from all sorts of different jobs talking about their jobs and lives. a great way to see actual different voices all together

https://www.amazon.com/Working-People-Talk-About-What/dp/1565843428

Thanks for that!

> The work of builders and mechanics is secure; it cannot be outsourced, and it cannot be made obsolete. Such work ties us to the local communities in which we live, and instills the pride that comes from doing work that is genuinely useful.

On Amazon

Last Train Home. It follows a young girl who leaves home to find work in a factory, as well as her parents who have already done so. It has some truly heartbreaking scenes, but it's also beautiful, and it paints a picture of migrant workers and their situation that is much more nuanced and personal than any I've seen outside of the book Factory Girls (which everyone should read). Easily one of my favourite documentaries ever.

As someone who has gone to college, graduated, and joined the workforce, I can say without question that I wish I hadn't gone.

I had lucrative Navy offers on the table and was also considering trade schools. Instead, I chose to go to a 4-year private university that offered me some scholarship money because it had been drummed into my head that college was the only way to succeed. I didn't know what I wanted to do in life, and I ended up with a poli sci degree and about $40K in debt (even after the scholarships). Useless.

Now, I have friends in the military who are doing great (in or out). I have friends who work in the oilfields, who are mechanics, who are welders, plumbers, electricians, etc... all doing very well personally and financially. And here's the kicker:

Most of them work their 40 and go home. If they work more, they make more. Lots more. They feel a sense of accomplishment when they complete a physical task with tangible results.

Me, I work as many hours as it takes. For the same money, no matter what. My job is ambiguous, the results often unclear. It's sad.

Check out the book Shop Class as Soulcraft if you're more interested in this disparity. But be careful, as it will make you want to quit your job and become a welder, carpenter, electrician, or mechanic.

Also, it's tough to justify going to college when some 50% (ish) of guys my age are un- or under-employed, despite their degrees. Part of that is guys (like me) getting dumb degrees. A larger part of that is that the college education that our parents/advisors enjoyed doesn't pay us the same benefits as it did them.

Get her a copy of Working by Studs Terkel. It's a little dated, but it's a great look into various careers.

And if she doesn't know how to Google, chalk it up as a loss. Wow.

It definitely isn't. Check out the Smithfield Foods union campaign for an inspiring example of justice being delayed but not denied. I highly recommend Jane McAlevey's second book for a good narrative of the fight (as well as discussion of corporate alliance SEIU vs. worker militant SEIU plus the Chicago teachers' strike fight) and some hope for the future.

Wow. You're just completely dishonest in reading anything I wrote to ensure that you're still correct. That link doesn't even address my point. It's apparent women have less promotions and lower wages on average than men.

I only mean to show that this wage gap isn't systematic sexism inherent in the corporate structure of America. If women and men did the exact same work, but women get paid less. Then why would a company even hire men? The difference in pay cannot merely be accounted for by sexism. Even if it was, there are legal protections in place. Even from your article, "I think companies want equality, but they will have to redesign jobs so flex-time and working from home aren't negatives for the fast track, says Ms. Bartel, who has also conducted research on women's presence in senior executive positions".

This quote shows us that a significant reason for this wage discrimination is that women use flex-time and work from home more than men, while men work more hours. Career choices have much more influence over wage than gender. William Farrell has a great book on the subject. You can read a summary on wikipedia.

Here's one.

Some relevant parts:

> There are observable differences in the attributes of men and women that account for most of the wage gap. Statistical analysis that includes those variables has produced results that collectively account for between 65.1 and 76.4 percent of a raw gender wage gap of 20.4 percent, and thereby leave an adjusted gender wage gap that is between 4.8 and 7.1 percent. These variables include:
>
> - A greater percentage of women than men tend to work part-time. Part-time work tends to pay less than full-time work.
> - A greater percentage of women than men tend to leave the labor force for child birth, child care and elder care. Some of the wage gap is explained by the percentage of women who were not in the labor force during previous years, the age of women, and the number of children in the home.
> - Women, especially working mothers, tend to value “family friendly” workplace policies more than men. Some of the wage gap is explained by industry and occupation, particularly, the percentage of women who work in the industry and occupation.
>
> Research also suggests that differences not incorporated into the model due to data limitations may account for part of the remaining gap. Specifically, CONSAD’s model and much of the literature, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics Highlights of Women’s Earnings, focus on wages rather than total compensation. Research indicates that women may value non-wage benefits more than men do, and as a result prefer to take a greater portion of their compensation in the form of health insurance and other fringe benefits.


I came across that study a while ago, when reading the Washington Post's fact-checking article about an Obama speech. I've seen a whole bunch of other stuff both before and since then, including possible explanations for the few percent that remain unexplained, but I haven't saved all the links. I do vaguely remember skimming through this book, too.

"Why Men Earn More" by Warren Farrell, PhD

A self-described feminist wrote a reasonably unbiased book exquisitely sourced... on why 'Men Earn More'. The book sums up 25 reasons.

> Farrell clearly defines the 25 different workplace choices that affect incomes–including putting in more hours at work, taking riskier jobs or more hazardous assignments, being willing to change location, and training for technical jobs that involve less people contact–and provides readers with specific, research-supported ways for women to earn higher pay.

Source: Cato Introduction to 'Why Men Earn More'

Because the man is a feminist, he also adds prescriptive lessons for how women can earn more. However, by the end of his book, it becomes clear that there is more than mere misguidance that leads to the pay gap. Men and women make different choices, have different temperaments, and different desires for sociability, which all make them unlikely to heed the author's advice. This is discounting the tail-end men who put in absurd hours and years of commitment to rise to the top of their respective industries, wherein this inclination is far less often seen with women across cultures.

I think this is a very interesting move from the Chinese government. Along with their recent shift on child birth restrictions I hope that rural citizens will have a better life there.

A couple years ago in my degree program we read a book on migrant workers from rural China (our teacher was from China and really great!) and it was very eye-opening. I believe the book was [Factory Girls] (http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Girls-Village-Changing-China/dp/0385520182)

There is a great book, Shop Class as Soul Craft.

I would highly recommend it for you and your students as well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143117467/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_t1_7tf0Cb1Z48XY6

If you want a great book exploring why Detroit is the way it is, I recommend The Origins of the Urban Crisis by Sugrue. He does a great job of exploring the reasons the city emptied out.

I haven't once 'complained about diversity'... do you even know who you're responding to anymore, or are you just randomly lashing out?

You actually made two claims:

• white men are still paid out of proportion to their numbers or skill
  
• white men are still hired out of proportion to their numbers or skill
  
  You've provided not one shred of evidence to prove either accusation, or even compelling reasoning, and have instead resorted to some pretty lazy logical fallacies even by the standards of the internet
  
  You then attempted to conflate these two claims with the purported 'wage gap' theory, which, again, you've provided no evidence for
  
  While, on the other hand, the data all seems to indicate the 'wage gap' is a fiction and that the idea that any observable difference is due to discrimination is an unsupported assumption (save for a trivial minority)
  
  These videos, articles, and book are a good starting point if you're truly interested in the subject
  
  https://youtu.be/QcDrE5YvqTs
  
  https://youtu.be/8EK6Y1X_xa4
  
  https://youtu.be/EwogDPh-Sow
  
  https://youtu.be/7fCBsugN_g0
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/1542751292
  
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/karinagness/2016/04/12/dont-buy-into-the-gender-pay-gap-myth/#ccf4e825969c
  
  http://www.aei.org/publication/there-really-is-no-gender-wage-gap-there-is-a-gender-earnings-gap-but-paying-women-well-wont-close-that-gap/

For those interested in learning more about the earnings gap, and how it's not a result of discrimination but rather is a result of the different choices men and women make in their lives, I recommend reading the book Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It.

This book is nothing short of awesome on this subject, and has largely proven true in my industry, one-on-one independent tutoring, usually for the SAT.

My job is weird, in that it's raw, brutal capitalism (traditionally masculine stuff) applied to education(traditionally feminine stuff). Advertising is simply useless; people don't go to the yellow pages when little Johnny has problems at school, they ask around. So, there's only one of two possibilities; you're good and you help people, and you get so many referrals that you have trouble keeping up with them all, or you don't help people, and you go out of business and have to find other work. There is no job security besides kicking ass.

I've always noticed I work with more men than women. (As tutors, that is; more women round out other roles in the companies I've worked for.) I've also noticed my bosses sometimes have to subtly try to hire more women so that a conspicuous sausage-fest doesn't develop. This year, I did some of the cattle calling as we winnowed out the resumes. My current outfit is a top-notch, expensive as sin outfit based in Manhattan, and we pull a few hires each year from a stack of hundreds of resumes. One of the main parts of my contribution to the hiring process, calling people to set up their first interview, was to make sure they understood the job description. In this case, driving around to clients' houses on Long Island and other suburbs (Manhattan clients all go to senior staff). I can't begin to tell you how many really awesome women with equally awesome degrees who seemed genuinely smart and genuinely cool (both requirements for the job; 16 year olds smell bullshit a mile away) balked as soon as I explained this part to them. I didn't notice until I handed our head of personnel his interview schedule, then blinked, and realized I was seeing pure Farrell.

Thinking about the women I do work with, I can say that Taoist gender models fit very snugly. They're highly valued because they're the rare women in what inexorably slides toward a man's world. They're the black dot of Yin at the heart of the Yang.

It's also impossible to have any less dichotomized conceptualization of gender in the office because none (and I mean none) of our clients do. If you ever start to feel like your gender is an insignificant part of your identity, go work at a summer camp sometime. As a guy, I of course got lots of "Hmm, maybe he's a rapist" dirty looks, but moreover, I was struck by how much I had forgotten all the gender-based rules; no boys over by the girls' bunks is just the tip of the iceberg. Gender differences are never more glaringly obvious than during adolescence, and both our students and their parents are steeped in this every day.

And so, in the office, we often have very candid conversations. "Rachel, you need to take this lacrosse jock from me. Drill sergeant isn't working anymore. He just builds the walls higher and higher. I think this calls for a woman's touch." "Mark, I've got a kid for you, I don't know what's going on with him." After a somewhat indirect conversation with dude's mom: "Oh hey, Karissa, yeah, I figured him out. He just couldn't get over wanting to get in your pants. I'll take care of him." "Ha! Explains a lot." Yes, we sometimes trade students for purely pedagogical reasons--one of my female colleagues is ten times the mathematician I am--but a significant portion of the time, gender is a consideration in tutor assignment.

All in all, I think my office is a good example of a progressive gender theory at work. Gender is relevant, though usually not completely determinative. Dynamic equilibrium seems to be the modus operandi.

This one wasn't written by a mainlander but it's about modern girls who work in factories. Factory Girls I also have The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices in my reading list, I believe it's supposed to be a collection of stories from women around the country. Unfortunately my chinese is elementary at best, so I can't recommend any chinese language books other than the wuxia stuff that got fan-translated.

On the economic side, there's a fair amount to choose from:

• What is money? - short debunking of Austrian assumptions on the nature and origin of money (this affects Marxist commodity money views too).
  
• Economic theory of the leisure class - Bukharin's classical polemic with marginalism and the Austrian school.
  
• Calculation, complexity and planning - reassessment of the socialist calculation debate and rebuttal of the Austrian position.
  
• Myth and Measurement: the new economics of the minimum wage - regarding the economic effects of the minimum wage, contrary to the marginalist value product theory.
  
• Production of commodities by means of commodities - Sraffa's proof by construction that homogeneous treatment of capital as well as marginal value product theory when applied to capital (in neoclassical and Austrian approaches alike) is logically untenable.
  
• There is no natural rate of interest - review by Sraffa against Mises' theory of money.
  
• Sen Paradox - libertarianism cannot be Pareto efficient on an unrestricted domain.
  
• The entrepreneurial state: debunking public vs private sector myths - on the state's role on R&D.
  
  
  There's more I could think of, but this should be a good start.
  Edited for format.
  

This only illustrates the priorities that are being forced upon us in this country. People go to school to get a good job, not to study or learn or better themselves. That is one of the reasons we have college graduates who can't understand basic concepts in math, science and literature. They went to school just to get a job.

Making money, in an acceptable profession, is not the culmination of success. That needs to be defined by the individual. Read Shop Class As Soulcraft. That book put into words what has been bothering me about my life for the past 25 years. Now I need to make sure my kids learn the lesson sooner than I did.

Do you have anything specific you are interested in?

These are just some off the top of my head: http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0743296281/ref=pd_sim_b_1

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Haymarket-Chicago-Movement-Bombing/dp/1400033225/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335220339&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/An-American-Betrayal-Cherokee-Patriots/dp/0805089551/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335220408&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Sin-Second-City-Ministers-Playboys/dp/0812975995/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335220450&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hanging-Thomas-Jeremiah-Encounter/dp/0300171323/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335220494&sr=1-1 (this is my favorite out of all of them)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-American-Democracy-Jefferson/dp/0393329216/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335220469&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/What-Hath-God-Wrought-Transformation/dp/0195392434/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335220477&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Muckraking-Landmark-Articles-Ellen-Fitzpatrick/dp/0312089449/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335220555&sr=8-1

I read this book Shop Class as Soulcraft than you may be interested in. It touches on a lot of the issues you mention and I recommend reading it to help sort out exactly what kind of work it is that you want to do.

www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/books/review/Fukuyama-t.html

www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

I recommend anyone interested in this subject check out the book Shop Class as Soulcraft. It's a good, informative read.

http://consad.com/index.php?page=an-analysis-of-reasons-for-the-disparity-in-wages-between-men-and-women

http://www.learnliberty.org/content/do-women-earn-less-men

http://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=2a1f8ad4-f649-4ad3-a742-268d946962db

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb_6v-JQ13Q

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2084582,00.html

I'm sure I don't have to link you any information on child support law and enforcement, because that would be like linking to a source that provides evidence that water is wet.

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/1594202230

Reading this might help you. It's about who college can help, and who it can hurt (as well as tons of other useful knowledge about making yourself happy in the American workforce).

You may also want to check out Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men

Great book on the subject if you're interested in reading more http://www.amazon.com/Death-Haymarket-Chicago-Movement-Bombing/dp/1400033225

Have you read Shop Class as Soulcraft? This is one of the many interesting points raised in the book. It's a great read. Completely changed my opinion of vocational school and blue-collar jobs.

Socialism/Communism

A People's History of the World

Main Currents of Marxism

The Socialist System

The Age of... (1, 2, 3, 4)

Marx for our Times

Essential Works of Socialism

Soviet Century

Self-Governing Socialism (Vols 1-2)

The Meaning of Marxism

The "S" Word (not that good in my opinion)

Of the People, by the People

Why Not Socialism

Socialism Betrayed

Democracy at Work

Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA (again didn't like it very much)

The Socialist Party of America (absolute must read)

The American Socialist Movement

Socialism: Past and Future (very good book)

It Didn't Happen Here

Eugene V. Debs

The Enigma of Capital

Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism

A Companion to Marx's Capital (great book)

After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action

Capitalism

The Conservative Nanny State

The United States Since 1980

The End of Loser Liberalism

Capitalism and it's Economics (must read)

Economics: A New Introduction (must read)

U.S. Capitalist Development Since 1776 (must read)

Kicking Away the Ladder

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Traders, Guns and Money

Corporation Nation

Debunking Economics

How Rich Countries Got Rich

Super Imperialism

The Bubble and Beyond

Finance Capitalism and it's Discontents

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt

America's Protectionist Takeoff

How the Economy was Lost

Labor and Monopoly Capital

We Are Better Than This

Ancap/Libertarian

Spontaneous Order (disagree with it but found it interesting)

Man, State and Economy

The Machinery of Freedom

Currently Reading

This is the Zodiac Speaking (highly recommend)

I got my start in politics as a political operative in Rhode Island working on state environmental issues and I used to teach a Junior High after school program about political activism. I have to dig around my attic a little bit, but I think I have an old text book that we used to use to teach new political organizers how to be effective. If you want me to find it and are willing to p.m. me a address or PO box or something, I could probably send it to you.

I will say this, being a good political organizer has nothing to do with whether or not you personally can vote but everything to do with how much credibility you have on the issue and with the community that you're communicating to.

[This is the book we used to use] (https://www.amazon.com/Organizing-Social-Change-Bobo-Kendall/dp/0984275215).

Obviously doesn't help for just like one upcoming protest, but could be a roadmap for future work. Also, look up writing press releases, pretty easy to get eyes on your event by writing a press release and just sending it along to local and national press.

I think part-time police work would indeed be an option, primarily in small rural towns.

You mention your desire to interact with real people and contribute to society in a positive manner. I wonder....how important is it to you to work in the field and "get your hands dirty", so to speak? I suspect social work (Child Protective Services comes to mind) might offer these things in spades.

Side thought: Check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

That book changed the way I look at the world, and I bet you'd get something out of it, as well.

> home server programming

Pfffft. That just sounds like setting up your home wifi and how we used to set up a LAN to share all our mp3s in a dorm/frat house.

But, for him, I'd think this or this or an AutoZone gift card.

I would recommend Shop Class as Soulcraft

Not directly about riding, but an interesting read on the mentality and ideals behind the manual labor of working on motorcycles, or manual labor in general.

There are several compendiums of interviews done with him, often where he has replied in writing, that cover a spectrum of his interests; I have Language and Politics, amongst some of his more specific works.

You might also look on YouTube for some of his speeches and interviews if you want a flavour without much reading.

EDIT: I'm now watching Conversations with History: Noam Chomsky: "UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler is joined by linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky to discuss activism, anarchism and the role the United States plays in the world today."

Shop class as soulcraft is an excellent book about the fanatic push to get us into information jobs, which are the ones most easily shipped away.

If the idea of that kind of workplace scares you (and it is a realistic depiction), pick up a copy of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143117467/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1594202230&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1042PF1K7R3TC6WVVACX

It can be a bit dense at times, but it nails a ton of issues that the current workforce is facing. Separation of thought from work, "production" of only abstracts, etc. GREAT book.

It's more complicated than that. If you read Why Men Earn More, there are a myriad number of reasons. There's maternity like you said. There's also women choosing to earn less because their husband can get a higher paying job if they move. There's also women choosing to work at lower paying jobs with more flexibility because family is actually a priority for them. The list goes on...

Most interestingly - women who choose not to have a family at all and be career women actually get paid more than their similarly situated male counterparts.

Tbf even in Japan the idea of loyalty between company and employer is slowly dying, replaced by part time work, contracting etc etc.

There’s even a term for workers who have basically zero job security due to these new practices, the Precariat(no this isn’t a lame joke, there’s even a book about it, by uhh Guy Standing(no really I’m seriously not joking)) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Precariat-New-Dangerous-Class/dp/1472536169

The pay gap is almost entirely explained by a combination of all listed factors, not just family.

> AAUW’s The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap succinctly addresses these issues by going beyond the widely reported 77 percent statistic.

Nice! So do we get to hear what the real gap is, rather than the grossly, disgustingly misleading 77%? A couple of inches down the page:

> In 2012, as in 2002, among full-time, year-round workers, women were paid 77 percent of what men were paid.

Nope.

The idea of a pay gap for equivalent work doesn't really hold water. If women were paid less for equivalent work, companies would aggressively hire women because that would cut their costs. For most companies, wages are a significant % of total costs.

Warren Farrell's book Why Men Earn More sums it up:

> Men work longer hours at more dangerous and disagreeable jobs. They more readily accept night shifts, hardship postings to Alaska and entrepreneurial risks. Men get in-demand degrees in engineering, while women get degrees in French literature. Female librarians earn less than garbagemen, not because of discrimination, but because so many applicants compete for the safe, clean, comfortable, convenient, fulfilling jobs women prefer. Indeed, the author insists, statistics show that women and men with equal experience and qualifications, doing the same job, for the same hours, under the same conditions-get paid the same.

Maybe get this book, read it, and if you like it as much as I think you will, give it to Nina to read. It was written by a PhD who quit a high-paying think tank job to open his own motorcycle repair shop. It makes a very compelling case for the value of skilled craftsmanship and labor, and for the idea that these sorts of jobs can never be outsourced, while most of the jobs you need a university degree for can and will be outsourced.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

>That's because it became an alternative to public schools. Trade skills have been privatized, from education to job placement.

Only because public schools quit teaching it. The mandate from the federal level came forth that ALL students should be taught to a standard in preparation for going to college. The result was the gutting of "shop class" for classes that teach to the test. It didn't happen overnight. It took a couple of decades to shift the public perception that public schools shouldn't teach some kids just to be farmers or auto mechanics because EVERYBODY should be lined up to go into the highly profitable higher education market.

here's a good book on the need for shop class and why we shouldn't be teaching everyone to work in white collar jobs.

It is both. I can really recommend The Precariat. The poor working class will favour more obvious and appealing solutions that treat the symptoms of inequality rather than treating inequality itself.

>It is both. I can really recommend The Precariat. The poor working class will favour more obvious and appealing solutions that treat the symptoms of inequality rather than treating inequality itself.

Sounds classist

> I feel like not defining yourself by your work can definitely make it easier to deal with.

In that regard, yes. I have very few memories of my parents every talking about work or complaining about their day. I knew they went to work but that was about it.

I was first asked that question by an old therapist of mine who was really big on environment: home, family, work, etc. I have never defined myself by what I do and sometimes others equated that to "lack of ambition". Sorry, there is more to life than 80 hour work weeks. My parents were always home in the evening and seldom worked OT.

Several good books if you have time:

1. https://www.amazon.com/Working-People-Talk-About-What/dp/1565843428/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520902801&sr=8-1&keywords=working%2Bstuds+terkel
   
   
2. https://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520902843&sr=1-1&keywords=nickel+and+dimed
   
   
3. https://www.amazon.com/Games-Mother-Never-Taught-You/dp/B00163OD2Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520902869&sr=1-2&keywords=betty+harrigan
   
   

Another good source for any interested readers - 1848: Year of Revolution. However, the book assumes very good general knowledge of European history of that period, so a casual reader without good knowledge of European history will probably be lost.

Shop Class as Soulcraft

The joys and benefits of working with your hands are vastly undervalued.

There are a lot of factors involved in the wage gap. http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109

I love being my gender because of the higher incarceration rate! er, what?

Please read: "Shop Class as Soulcraft" http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/1594202230 I am not the author of this book and I am not an employee of the publisher. I read this book last year and it explains your exact question. It's actually a really good read.

Learn a trade any you’ll never go hungry. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll always be able to find a job. As far as pay goes, it depends on where you live. I’m in New England and make around $100k/year with overtime and bonuses doing 100% residential. Drawbacks are long hours in bad weather - both hot and cold, you’re the oncall guy for your family, friends, neighbors, etc., carrying equipment up stairs, ladders, through attics, across rooftops, etc., and dealing with idiots. It’s worth it? Absolutely! If you’re trying to decide between learning a trade vs going to collage read this book, it’ll give you some perspective from someone hat been in both sides of the fence.

Edit: correct link below
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143117467/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top_nodl?ie=UTF8

This is the best book I've thought of so far: https://www.amazon.com/Working-People-Talk-About-What/dp/1565843428/

Typical Millennial attitude reinforced by dubious boomer social engineering politics.

A teacher's job is to teach and evaluate mastery of learning. Some kids will never master certain subjects. That's why we have grades. This society is falling off the wheels with this idea that everyone is equally capable of everything, and therefore our standards are racing towards the bottom. Lousy student with a lousy degree from a lousy university? That's okay we'll bail out your student loans as if the younger generation were too big to fail too.

Note, that a lot of people are figuring this out. The fastest growing rate of enrollment right now is in community/junior colleges that actually teach people trades that will lead to a job. Our public schools used to do this, but somehow the boomers settled on the idea that all their special little snow-flakes, especially their second franchise millennial kids after they were done dumping on the first round of GEN-X) all deserved to go to college. Note, the word deserved versus the concept of being afforded an equal opportunity. So now our institutes of higher learning are stuck with the OP's problem. I'll bet he spends all his time with the kids who don't belong versus the truly bright kids who will engineer our future.

No amount of self-esteem, standardized test tweaking, money dumping, student loan bailouts or teach for America b.s. will produce the type of educated people this country needs to succeed without a clear-headed reevaluation of our now basic assumptions about education. I'd like to see it start with some math teachers failing the shit out of people.

This is an earlier work by Warren Farrell, author of the EXCELLENT book
Why Men Earn More

Both should be required reading for anyone interested in Mens rights and the fabricated victimhood that feminism portrays.

There is a huge difference between labour practices and conditions in China today compared to what went on there in the 1970s and 1980s. An awful lot of opinion of conditions in Chinese factories comes from these early decades, with many people assuming that what went on then is still going on.

While it's true that there are bad factories, this is not the norm. While it's also true that many if not most factories in China would fall foul of some US labour laws, it's just as true that virtually every US factory and work place would fall just as foul of EU labour laws. Different countries, different rules and expectations.

I've visited many small factories in China, and I've placed many orders with these factories. I wouldn't like to work in them myself, but they are not the slave labour camps that some people suggest.

Are there exceptions and outlying cases? Of course. But China is a country with a population of over 1,000 million people, and a massive proportion of these work in factories, so the number of factories with poor working conditions is going to be high. If you want to get a true picture of what it's like to work in these factories, I suggest you read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Girls-Village-Changing-China/dp/0385520182/

Of all the books I've read on China, this one comes closest to the reality that I've seen on the ground.

Relevant, and a great read.

It’s complicated.

Leslie Chang wrote a great book about this world called Factory Girls: https://www.amazon.com/Factory-Girls-Village-Changing-China/dp/0385520182

• "52 Pickup," "Swag," "Unknown Man #89," "The Switch" and "City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit" -- masterful crime novels by Elmore Leonard, aka the Dickens of Detroit.
  "If you’re writing crime fiction, you couldn’t pick a better American city," says his son Peter, also a local novelist.
  
  
• "The Turner House" by Detroit native Angela Flournoy, a well-reviewed 2015 novel (her first) set on the east side. It became a National Book Award finalist.
  
  
• "Detroit: A Biography" by Scott Martelle (nonfiction). "I spent nearly a decade as a journalist in Detroit, and became infatuated with the city as a story."
  
  
• "Detroit: An American Autopsy," a 2013 memoir/narrative by Charlie LeDuff.
  
  
• "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit ," an essential 1996 classic (reissued in a 2014 paperback) by influential historian Thomas Sugrue, a Detroit native.
  
  
• "How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass," by u/akfoley -- a helpful, humorous, savvy guide for newcomers, returnees and anyone who wants to come correct. Originally dropped in 2015, get the 2018 second edition (updated).

This book explains it in great detail: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/1542751292

> There's still a persistent gap of 5-10% even when corrected for position and hours.

Yes, because there are more variables to correct for. Subspecialty. Qualifications. Years on the job. Willingness to travel.

> You looking at the same stats as everyone else?

Probably not. I read Warren Farrell's book, which goes deeper than most of the other analyses I've seen out there. If women are getting nudged, it's into more comfortable jobs that give them better quality of life, while men are getting nudged into more demanding, more dangerous jobs because they can bring home higher pay.

http://www.amazon.com/From-Folks-Who-Brought-Weekend/dp/1565847768


Read a book. There are citations included! Or just read the citations and check the sources! Neat!

Not pure woodworking, but I this book was enjoyable- https://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

Working is a goldmine of research ideas. Some of it's a bit dated because the book was written in the mid-70s, but a lot of the interviewees express ideas that are truly timeless.

This sums it up pretty well.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0814472109?pc_redir=1407654181&robot_redir=1


The 77% stat tends to get skewed because men work longer hours, have higher risk careers (think firefighter, etc) and tend to log more in sales based or commission goals due to those longer hours.


A woman can take time off for maternal leave, and tend to have less certifications in their chosen field. Yes, a masters degree is important, but is it relevant to an administrative assistant position?

It's a messed up situation all around. While having a college degree may not get you a job, not having one cripples you in today's job market.

But this doesn't speak to the quality of the jobs. People with degrees may be getting the jobs, but those jobs are probably paying much less than today's graduates think they would (or should) earn. With all the debt they assume to get the degree to get the job, this just keeps them on a treadmill of forever paying off student loans. So "getting the job" does not translate to "happily ever after," either.

Personally I think going to a technical/trade school is looking like a better choice by the day. Much less upfront investment (keeping you out of any major debt), you're more likely to land decently-paid work right away, and you probably will find as much--if not more--job satisfaction (if you agree with this book).

Sure, Here's a book on the topic as well
http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Measurement-David-Card/dp/0691048231


and an interview with the author that discusses his findings

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/12/an_interview_wi.html

> No it hasn't. Show me this alleged proof.

Here's an entire book that proves it.

Other studies

Here's the data from the department of labour - let me quote it for you:

>Myth: Increasing the minimum wage will cause people to lose their jobs.

>Not true: In a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders urging a minimum wage increase, more than 600 economists, including 7 Nobel Prize winners wrote, "In recent years there have been important developments in the academic literature on the effect of increases in the minimum wage on employment, with the weight of evidence now showing that increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum-wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market. Research suggests that a minimum-wage increase could have a small stimulative effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend their additional earnings, raising demand and job growth, and providing some help on the jobs front."

Seriously, you're embarrassing yourself. Your silly ideology has nothing to do with reality.

That and Shop Class as Soulcraft are my two favorites!

I probably shouldn't be recommending books that I haven't read yet myself but Labor and Monopoly Capital has been on my book list for quite some time and is supposedly very good. Maybe we'll read it at the same time.

To quote the first paragraph of the introduction to the new edition:
>Work, in today's society, is a mystery. No other realm of social existence is so obscured in mist, so zealously concealed from view ("no admittance except on business") by the prevailing ideology. Within so-called popular culture -- the world of TV and films, commodities and advertising -- consumption occupies center stage, while the more fundamental reality of work recedes into the background, seldom depicted in any detail, and then usually in romanticized forms. The harsh experiences of those forced to earn their living by endless conformity to boring machine-regulated routines, divorced from their own creative potential -- all in the name of efficiency and profits -- seem always just beyond the eye of the camera, forever out of sight.

I mean holy shit what an opening! Immediately there is so much of what's already been brought up.

Hi bad talking point, I'm Mr. Facts and Studies please take the time to get to know me, and understand why what you said about minimum wage is wrong!

Department of Education doesn't fail at everything, and the recent changes in its budgets will make it a lot better, at around 70 billion, its not a huge waste of money nationally speaking because it does succeed at some things.

>by perpetuating myths

He's more responsible for busting the wage gap myth than anybody. Again you should learn more about MRAs before pretending to be one

/r/BookSuggestions

Personally I liked Working by Studs Terkel

I read a book a few months ago that touched on that point (the author seemed like an ass though). The gist was that as we've shifted away from work with tangible things, we've lost our sense of purpose and meaning in our work. A report on a business goal can be changed and tweaked to the point that any result appears like a success. But if you build a wooden table and it's not level, it's objectively not a success. Making it level brings you fulfillment because you've succeeded at something with no abstraction, unlike the other guy who can just move the goalposts in their fantasy world. We can grow most at the level with the least abstraction.

Check out the book factory girls, interesting read on this subject. Seems to be voluntary from the factory workers point of view.

https://www.amazon.com/Factory-Girls-Village-Changing-China/dp/0385520182

Have you read Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford? You might want to check it out.

>Statement: Women earn a fraction of what men do.

>Source: http://gao.gov/new.items/d0435.pdf

response:

___


You completely rephrased your statement from before.

Your original statement was this:

>women being paid less than men to perform the same jobs,

this is what I refuted, with this challenge:

>If you offer me a solid reference proving that women are being paid more than 10% less FOR IDENTICAL JOBS, WITH THE SAME TIME IN JOB, AND THE SAME NUMBER OF SICK DAYS, I promise I will look at it.

>But you won't.

And you didn't. The GAO report does not show that women in the same jobs, with the same time in job, and the same number of hour worked, are paid less. It explicitly states in bold letters on the first page of the report that work patterns partially explain the difference between mens' and women's earnings.

I determined this by reading the first page of the report, where it said, "Work Patterns
Partially Explain
Difference between
Men’s and Women’s
Earnings "

You have failed here to meet my challenge.

However, by eliminating the challenges:

1. women are being paid more than 10% less
   
   
2. FOR IDENTICAL JOBS,
   
   
3. WITH THE SAME TIME IN JOB,
   
   
4. THE SAME NUMBER OF SICK DAYS,
   
   
   you created your own challenge and met it.
   
   Here's a book for you:
   http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109
   
   Even the AAUW cites a differing amount if time at work and time in job as significant factors in the wage gap:
   
   http://www.aauw.org/research/behindPayGap.cfm
   
   THis looks at the AAUW study closer, and finds flaws in
   http://feck-blog.blogspot.com/2009/09/pay-gap-persists-women-still-make-less.html
   
   This report by CONSAID, included this statement from in the a forward. this statement was from the US Department of Labor:
   
   > However, despite these gains the raw wage gap continues to be used in misleading ways to
   advance public policy agendas without fully explaining the reasons behind the gap.
   
   
   http://www.consad.com/content/reports/Gender%20Wage%20Gap%20Final%20Report.pdf
   
   (CONSAID did the research, US Dept. of Labor provided the forward.)
   
   and look at this:
   
   >"At any given level of the career hierarchy, women are paid slightly more than men with the same background, have slightly less income uncertainty and are promoted as quickly," it concludes. "We concluded that the gender pay gap and differences in job rank in this most lucrative occupation is explained by females leaving the market at higher rates than males."
   
   Quoting a Carnegie Mellon University study.
   http://feck-blog.blogspot.com/2009/09/pay-gap-persists-women-still-make-less.html
   
   

Wage Gap:

Washington Post - Wage Gap Gets New Pinocchio Rating Author: Glenn Kessler


The Daily Beast - No, Women Aren't Paid Less Than Men


Slate - The Gender Wage Gap Lie Author: Hanna Rosin


CBS News - The Gender Pay Gap is a Complete Myth Author: Steve Toback


Time - 5 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die Author: Feminist Christina Hoff Sommers.


Real Clear Markets - The Female Wage Gap Is a Major Economic Myth


Wall Street Journal - There is no male-female wage gap Author: Carrie Lukas

Market Watch - The gender wage gap is a myth Author: Diana Roth

Does a Gender Wage Gap Really Exist? - By Mark Mullen

Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It by Warren Farrel

They're not terrible, and they're not slaves. Would I give up being a middle class American to work in a factory? No, but they're not terrible. educate yourself before speaking next time

I highly recommend reading this:
http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/0143117467

The basic premise is that paper-pushing isn't intrinsically satisfying, but being able to point at tangible accomplishments at the end of the day is.

Read this: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109

There is no systematic discrimination against women with respect to pay in the US today.

> And my generation is the one full of people pushing for progressive reform and big on activism.

Yeah, thank god. Mine rolled back countless worker protections that people fought and died for and still drinks the "good job = personal merit" koolaid that continues to roll back the social safety net. We started out at the end of an actual golden age and then helped the boomers stomp it out.

And don't think you're alone in the "bachelors is the new HS diploma". I have a BS and 25 years of work experience but it keeps me out of fast food and retail and not much else. My spouse with a HS diploma and 20+ years of work experience actually works in food service. Experience is highly specialized and if you don't fit 100% of what a company is looking for, they have no use for you.

I'm reading this right now, and it makes a lot of sense. It will definitely get a lot worse if we don't start collectively demanding otherwise.

http://janemcalevey.com/interview-with-brian-lehrer-on-nycs-npr/920/2016/11/

https://www.amazon.com/No-Shortcuts-Organizing-Power-Gilded/dp/019062471X

Almost finished reading this. It's giving me heart palpitations in some parts, it's that good. THINGS CAN CHANGE. It is hard work, and it never stops, but we have the power to fight.

Shop Class as Soulcraft

http://amzn.com/0143117467

Shop Class as Soulcraft!

> secondo te, perché - nonostante il "boom" - lo stesso benessere non si osserva in Cina o in India

Lo si osserva eccome! Il problema e' che entrambi i paesi oltre a essere enormi sono partiti con molto ma molto svantaggio. In Cina durante la rivoluzione culturale milioni di persone sono morte (fra carestia e violenze); la stessa cosa in India, durante le carestie degli anni 70.

Un libro interessante che ho letto di recente: Factory Girls. Fa vedere molto bene quanto gli squallidi lavori in fabbrica siano di fatto un progresso sostanziale per un popolo che letteralmente moriva di fame..

Per quanto riguarda l'India, le cause sono diverse; ma io credo che sara' l'India e non la Cina la potenza emergente di questo millennio.

An interesting view point I had been blind to: https://www.ted.com/talks/leslie_t_chang_the_voices_of_china_s_workers?language=en

She (Leslie T. Chang) also has a book about her experiences: http://www.amazon.com/Factory-Girls-Village-Changing-China/dp/0385520182

1848: Year of Revolution by Mike Rapport.

http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-economist-explains-the-gender-wage-gap-2016-3

http://www.aei.org/publication/there-really-is-no-gender-wage-gap-there-is-a-gender-earnings-gap-but-paying-women-well-wont-close-that-gap/

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109

Every minority at IBM gets a 1% raise. Women are considered a minority. They get paid more for the same work at IBM.

The idea that women make less than males in tech is preposterous. There's ample evidence that firms will go out of their way to recruit women by paying them more. The book Whey Men Earn More talks about all of this in great detail.

Warren Farrell wrote an entire book on the subject: "Why Men Earn More".

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451964248&sr=8-1&keywords=why+men+earn+more

Warren Farrell, specifically The Myth of Male Power and Why Men Earn More.

Warren Farrell's Why Men Earn More.

A thorough review from an ex-NOW member who realized that if women really made $0.70 for every $1 men made, any company which didn't hire only women would be driven out of the market due to overhead...

I'm not out of points. You need to read more. There's plenty of places to start. Here's a book

Beyond that you can google.

There's a book on that very topic:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Precariat-New-Dangerous-Class/dp/1472536169

Guy Standing on The Precariat.

Try this: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/1542751292

No, women don't always have a choice, because they have a choice of working, which means now they have to work, see how that works? hehe.

Try something by Studs Terkel.

Is it from the book Working by Studs Terkel? It's a collection of interviews with people talking about their work.

Edit: Nevermind, just re-read the lawyer chapter and it's not there.

Not true at all. I suggest reading this book.

Before the 1860's and even before the American Revolution, organized labor existed in the United States. In some cases, it was a holdover of the European Guild system that monopolized training in the skilled trades by organization of the masters. However, as the guild system disintegrated under the momentum of American expansion, new independent organizations rose to take its place.

The first labor strike on US soil was in 1619, a fuller, but still notably incomplete list of pre-1860 labor actions can be found here.

yeah, it's sexist and unfair.

but as you get older you'll discover that women bitch & moan only about double-standards that work against them.

>I sometimes hear the complaint that women only make .80 cents to the men's dollar

this isn't exactly true. women as a group tend to earn less than men as a group. but that's mainly because women tend to make different career choices than men. men work more overtime, for example and prefer more cash, while women prefer lower wages to more comfortable conditions and better fringe benefits. when men & women have the same levels of dedication, training, expertise, experience, etc, they earn almost exactly the same wages in the same careers. more info in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109