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From: mms1646@acf4.UUCP (Michael M. Sykora)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Discrimination against women and statistics
Message-ID: <1340261@acf4.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 04:58:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: acf4.1340261
Posted: Fri Jul  5 04:58:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 05:37:08 EDT
References: <8204@ucbvax.ARPA>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 57

>/* ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan) /  4:18 pm  Jul  3, 1985 */

>I disagree, Will.  The only reason this is possible is not because
>you don't have kids or cars, though that helps, it's because you make
>enough money in your job that one of you doesn't *have* to work.  

No.  The reason this is possible is that he makes enough money in his
job to satisfy him to a degree he seems to find acceptable.  This
degree of acceptability does not include children and cars, both of
which cost a lot.

>To say "If I can do it, anyone can" is one of the American Myths.
>It just ain't so.  Most people don't have the benifit of a decent
>education; they couldn't afford it.  Most people are so busy trying
>to feed and house themselves and their families that they can only
>dream of something better.

From the context of Will's article, it appears that he was claiming that
poor people could also choose not to have children or cars, not that they
could achieve the "American Dream."

>To say that
>they're making the *wrong* choices and you're making the *right*
>ones is unrealistic and cruel, besides being elitist, narrow-minded,
>and insulting.  

Certainly, if these people want Will to give them money in the form
of welfare or whatever, he has a right to make such claims.

>Kids: What do you say to the poor teenager who's been raped, or who's 
>just been messing around and ended up pregnant (because no-one told
>her about birth control).  Get an abortion? With what money?

How do you know that the reason so many poor teenagers get
pregnant is because no one told them about birth control?

>Where would you be if your parents had picked the *right* choices as
>you define them?  

Of what relevance is this question?

>And as to the benefits of marriage for men and women, Ed didn't say
>that women didn't benefit (though I might if my fur were ruffled
>enough), he said that marriage benefits men *more* than it
>benefits women.  

If so, then why do so many women marry?  Are you implying they are foolish
for doing so?

>Lately, laws have been getting better (e.g., more equal) WRT men,
>women, and marriage, but we still have a long way to go.

What laws, specifically, discriminate against women.

>Ariel (not really wife material, but I might consider it) Shattan

						Mike Sykora