Nitwits on NPR
As readers of this blog know, I've been frustrated at The Economist's pro-war idiocy (and I don't mean that as a pleonasm--I'm saying their pro-war writings happen to be idiotic). Just to show how fair and balanced I am, I'll mention two liberal D-U-M dumb things I heard on NPR this morning.
(1) On a story about how the wage gap has increased between men and women, the reporter concluded, "At this rate, it will take over 50 years for pay parity between the sexes." Umm, if the disparity increased last year, "at this rate" we will never have pay parity. Of course you can say, "Oh, they're using a longer time frame." OK, but I bet if you go back 50 years and see what the "wage gap" was then, that we've more than halved it since. You folla?
(2) The anchor was interviewing some visiting scholar to an organization (not sure if university or think tank) in CA I believe, who apparently is an expert on Iraq. She was gushing over the State run oil industry and how the greedy US oil companies are trying to screw the Iraqi people. OK fair enough. Then the anchor asked her how the Iraqi gov't has been doing, running the oil lately. She said something like:
It's done quite well, actually. Daily production before the invasion was about 2.5 million barrels, while now it averages around 2.2 to 2.3 million barrels.
OK, so compared to oil production during a regime of a brutal thug who was being punished by punitive worldwide sanctions (but yes there were "oil for food" programs), oil production is now down 8 to 12%. What would have to happen for this lady to say the State-run enterprise were being poorly run?
(1) On a story about how the wage gap has increased between men and women, the reporter concluded, "At this rate, it will take over 50 years for pay parity between the sexes." Umm, if the disparity increased last year, "at this rate" we will never have pay parity. Of course you can say, "Oh, they're using a longer time frame." OK, but I bet if you go back 50 years and see what the "wage gap" was then, that we've more than halved it since. You folla?
(2) The anchor was interviewing some visiting scholar to an organization (not sure if university or think tank) in CA I believe, who apparently is an expert on Iraq. She was gushing over the State run oil industry and how the greedy US oil companies are trying to screw the Iraqi people. OK fair enough. Then the anchor asked her how the Iraqi gov't has been doing, running the oil lately. She said something like:
It's done quite well, actually. Daily production before the invasion was about 2.5 million barrels, while now it averages around 2.2 to 2.3 million barrels.
OK, so compared to oil production during a regime of a brutal thug who was being punished by punitive worldwide sanctions (but yes there were "oil for food" programs), oil production is now down 8 to 12%. What would have to happen for this lady to say the State-run enterprise were being poorly run?
"Umm, if the disparity increased last year, "at this rate" we will never have pay parity."
ReplyDeleteGiven the trend, I predict that eventually women will have to pay employers if they want to work.