Comparable Worth Concept

If the two constants in the lives of men are death and taxes, to these, the patriarchy has added “doublespeak” to the lives of women.

It is understandable that the president of the Merchants and Manufacturers Assn. wants to spend as little money as possible on employees wages. However, I must question the purity of his motive when he invokes the sacred cow (bull) of “the basic principle of supply and demand.” Congress repealed this concept when it bailed out Chrysler. Or is it that you get to pick and choose, whose supply and whose demand?

Why didn’t the auto companies lower their prices (Econ I-Adam Smith), instead of distributing bonuses to executives?

As for his “salient factors,” “social and cultural reasons, worldwide tradition . . .”, it is just these traditions that see to it that women are demeaned, underfed, overworked, undervalued, ignored, beaten, misinformed and are convinced that all this is being done for their own good!

Added to this, was perhaps the oldest slander of them all. Patrick Moody would have us blame the victim still. Those who are underpaid like it that way. Really! Librarians are not forced to work as librarians any more than auto workers are forced to be auto workers.

Economic equity is based on what it takes to get and hold a job: education, training, responsibility, accountability and skill. You can’t get any more realistic than this.

MIRIAM ALBERT

Thousand Oaks