Spoiled Rich People

     So I’ve been noticing a trend here, as have most people with a tad bit of common sense.

     

     Rich people are blaming Obama for their own actions.

     I know, shocking considering that’s been going on for four years already. Let me narrow that down to the recent days following Obama’s reelection. I’m sure you’ve seen the Facebook meme about John the Snot-excuse me, Schnatter, owner of Papa John’s. You know, the one where he’s saying he’s going to cut back employees’ hours so he doesn’t have to give them healthcare? (Even better is his quote about how he’d love to give all his employees healthcare, this just isn’t the right way- no matter only a third of his employees are insured as it is.)

     Yeah, that’s not just him. A few franchise owners of Denny’s and Dairy Queen are hopping on that bandwagon, along with the CEO of Applebee’s New York, the parent company of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, and even a few small businesses to name just a few.

     One guy even fired employees so he’d remain under the fifty employee cap to avoid paying for healthcare, going so far as making sure he fired people who voted for Obama. Does that sound illegal to you? Hint: it is.

     One thing these people have in common? Gigantic salaries. The Walton family of Walmart is pulling the same crap. Basically, it’s multimillionaires and billionaires who are telling their workers that the poverty wages they pay them are too much. It’s people who own several luxury homes, a car for each week, and their own golf courses in their backyard who are saying they can’t afford to give their employees healthcare.

     Another thing these greedy bastards have in common is that they’re literally saying Obama made them do it.

     No, I’m not buying the shit in your stores, and I’m certainly not buying that shit. YOU decided to lay off hardworking, desperate employees in a recession right before the holidays. YOU decided not to take a tiny pay cut to your grotesquely overinflated salary in order to ensure the people who made, and are making you, those millions don’t have to worry every time their kid falls at the public playground.

     YOU are so butthurt by a President realizing the value of the middle class that you are willing to plunge families further into poverty THE FREAKING MONTH BEFORE CHRISTMAS just to sabotage him. YOU are so afraid of your employees realizing how terribly you treat them that they’ll finally say “Enough of this shit” and strike.

     Congratulations: YOU ARE WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY.

     You don’t want to take responsibility for your own actions. Understandable considering how Congress has coddled you like a spoiled child. But you aren’t, are you? No, you are an adult and it’s time to act like one.

     To quote the amazing Elizabeth Warren, “There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody… You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

     Your employees are the ones who run your company, maintain it, and quite literally make your money for you. I’m not saying it’s bad to be rich- I hope to be someday myself. I’m saying it’s bad to dehumanize and devalue the very people you rely on.

     That’s going to bite you in the ass someday, and there won’t be any healthcare for you either when it starts to fester.

    

Money is More Important for Men

Those are the words spoken by Wisconsin senator Glenn Grothman (R). To avoid any conflict over ‘picking and choosing’, here is his full statement: “You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.” (http://www.care2.com/causes/wisconsin-equal-pay-law-repealed-because-money-is-more-important-for-men.html#ixzz1rTIInZoF)

This is just another example of the huge disconnect that the (mostly heterosexual white cisgender male) Republican Congress has. In actual reality, there is a huge pay gap between the sexes. In the U.S., women only make about 77 cents to every dollar their male counterpart makes (http://www.pay-equity.org/). That means that a man making $40,000 a year is bringing home $9,200 more than a woman working exactly the same job with exactly the same credentials. This is not about who finds money more important, this is about sex discrimination pure and simple.

If Grothman wants to discuss who is going forward to become a breadwinner, maybe he should consider that the majority of households are dual income. That means the family relies on both husband and wife, wife and wife, or husband and husband. It may also startle him to discover that most single income households are run by women, thus making it more important for women to make more money than men (if viewed through that particular lens; I am not advocating any type of pay inequity).

With this towering heap of facts, I think it is very safe to say that there is a serious bias in the workplace. Women are still not valued or compensated equitably for their work. Not only do statistics call out Grothman’s lies, but women’s own experiences. Consider the massive lawsuit that female employees brought against Walmart. Runaway harassment and discrimination against women started what would have been the country’s largest discrimination lawsuit. A poor decision on the Supreme Court’s part has put up yet more roadblocks, which is also very telling in how our legal systems view women’s importance.

Women make up nearly half of the workplace, yet they hold a much lower percentage of administrative and upper management positions. The statistics for women of color are even more abysmal, especially when poverty is stirred into the mix.

For even more proof, let’s look at our country’s governing body. Women only hold 90 of the 535 seats of our government. That translates to women only having about %16.8 of the say in what goes on in our country (http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/Congress-CurrentFacts.php). That is a chilling number and a slap in the face to our daughters, mothers, wives and coworkers. Also consider that when legislation is passed that cuts programs that specifically help women or restricts their reproductive rights, it is mostly men who decide on it. Case in point, the infamous all-male panel in Congress that discussed whether contraception was really important for women (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/birth-control-hearing-was-like-stepping-into-a-time-machine/). Let’s also not forget that 2011 saw an historic amount of proposed legislation restricting women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.

So, senator Grothman, in conclusion you are relying on faulty evidence. Women value money as much as men. Women work just as hard for even less. And women are more likely to seriously consider the value of their dollars since they are the only source of income in their households.

If women held an equitable amount of positions in the workplace and our government, I do believe you would be out of a job Mr. Grothman. 

I Am: Trans People Speak ally video

This is my I Am: video. I am: a trans ally. 

Script:

I am a writer, a daughter, an entrepreneur, a woman, a dog trainer, a bisexual, and I am a trans-ally. I’m speaking out because there’s way too much focus on what’s in your pants instead of your head. I’ve heard the horror stories of harassment from my transgendered and transsexual friends. I’ve heard about being denied a job or fired from one, about being sprayed with a hose while walking your dog, about being threatened just for daring to go out to eat or grocery shopping. Transpeople are people first and foremost, and no matter what gender or lack thereof they choose to go by, it isn’t anyone else’s business. Being trans isn’t an illness or moral shortcoming. Asking to be labeled as a woman, man, or neither isn’t shoving anything in anyone else’s face, it’s just a request for the same respect and dignity they show you. I’m tired of my friends being legally beaten and discriminated. I vow to stand up for my trans-friends by calling out hate and discrimination, and by asking them what they need and want instead of making decisions for them.