191–200 of 309 posts
I find this fairly astounding. The typical stay-at-home parent is the mother and while it's getting closer to parity I don't think it's anywhere near even. For that reason alone I would expect more men in the work force. What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier?
Depressed, committing suicide or just doing nothing. But apparently nobody cares.
The more interesting thing is the distribution of income. I would happily bet that there still is a considerable gap between women on average and men on average and that the total amount taken home by that majority is significantly less than the total amount for the men.
Women tend to choose jobs that pay less. They're on average more interested in people, so they tend to choose to become nurses, teachers, etc., while men are interested in things and become software developers, engineers, etc. I have no idea why income HAS TO be distributed equally. Unless you want to force women to become software developers..? But why.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier? Some are living in their parents basement until they're 30 to 40. It has been hypothesized that with the breakdown of families in the US, men are giving up, and that includes efforts to build a stable foundation for their family. See MGTOW but dont read too much, it can be kind of depressing.
As a non-American, what's up with this basement meme? Do American homes have furnished rooms in the literal basement or is it just a joke? Or are they like half basements with small windows?
Houses built before about 1980 has basements best described as a dungeon: you store the harvest down there over winter, and the furnace is there, but you don't go down for any other purpose.
About 1980 styles started changing. Most basements in newer houses are living space - one wall might have no windows (even then there is a fire escape window large enough for that purpose that lets in useful amounts of light), but the other wall is not less than half above ground, and often entirely at grade with a complete door outside. In these newer houses there is often a complete (but small) kitchen, used only for entertaining for those rare times where the entire extended family comes to visit. There will be bedrooms down there. It isn't uncommon to have the parents live there for a few years when they cannot live alone but are not bad enough for the nursing home.
Structurally, the purpose of basements is mostly to get the foundation below the frost line so frost doesn't move the house. That can be covered by one meter or less, which leave plenty of space for windows above ground if you want to use the space. Making the space useful is pretty cheap when you have it anyway.
Note that basements are NOT universal. If there is no frost to worry about they are expensive and not worth it. If the ground water is too high there are other ways to deal with frost.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>perhaps in ways that men are expected to seem "confident" or "strong" or "independent" which I think can be stiffing. Yep, and women demand this too: many women's dating profiles talk about how they want a guy who's "confident but not cocky", who "makes a plan" for dates, who "takes the lead", etc. Basically, American women want hyper-masculine men who look like George Clooney (when younger), but then they sit aroun…
> Men basically have the choice of either a stuffy suit that look like it hasn't changed in a century and is completely impractical, or baggy pants and a baggy hoody. I don't wear either of these on a daily basis, nor my birthday suit, and people think that I dress nice. Men have a plethora of clothing options that are stylish, comfortable, and appropriate for work situations. I'm currently wearing slacks that are de…
I read this frequently, but it just seems flat wrong, I think men just have lower expectations about how clothes should fit, and there is less expectation that men stay slim. I’m trim and fit, and I can only buy from a couple of brands if I want clothes that fit me well without being skin tight. I’m not alone. There is a great variety of shoulder geometries for men, I remember hearing on JRE, but I can’t find a source to link, that their is a huge of amount of variation in men’s(everyone’s?) shoulders, probably due to Homo sapiens evolving to hunt with overhand thrown rocks. I could be flat wrong, but I detest this, “men’s bodies are mostly the same” attitude, you can definitely tell the difference between someone wearing a well tailored suit and someone who isn’t. I’m pretty sure men just have lower standards/expectations.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Non-american here so pardon my ignorance: Why is "basement" so common in this case? I mean, the whole "living with parents" and the basement thing.
I second this. Unless the person has lived their entire life in the basement (which seems a little cruel) why has the person been moved to the basement after reaching adulthood? Why can't they keep their room?
The basement is an upgrade. It's virtually a bachelor apartment (or a flat, for the Europeans reading), often with its own access, a private bathroom and often a kitchen or kitchenette. They're actually lux enough that they do very well on the rental market in busy cities.
For the child of the adult owners, it's a sort of independent-dependence. Some move down there while trying to save money for their own dwelling, which is probably the most often case, and others move down there, never strive for independence and become the stereotype talked about in this thread.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, in the US, if you have a basement, it's most often finished or at least partially finished, with walls and insulation and so on. Teenagers often like to hang out there because it offers semi-private living. See TV shows like "That 70s Show" for a prime example.
Wow, here the basements usually only have stuff like washing machines, heating equipment and storage for all sorts of clutter and tools. I cannot imagine living in a windowless room, feels like a dungeon or torture room.
The vast majority, if not all, of basements I've seen in North America have their ceiling above ground level and as such tend to be surrounded with small windows.
Many, but not all, will have their own separate entrance also.
The more interesting thing is the distribution of income. I would happily bet that there still is a considerable gap between women on average and men on average and that the total amount taken home by that majority is significantly less than the total amount for the men.
Women tend to choose jobs that pay less. They're on average more interested in people, so they tend to choose to become nurses, teachers, etc., while men are interested in things and become software developers, engineers, etc. I have no idea why income HAS TO be distributed equally. Unless you want to force women to become software developers..? But why.
This is accurate, but not for the reasons you have given.
Think of it this way. Within a profession, say "lawyer", there are different career paths. One career path involves a lot of travel away from home, and one does not. Because traditionally women are expected to be home for children, women tend to more often select the path that involves staying at home more, which tends to also pay less.
So then, when you look at "lawyer", you see a pay gap, and then you dive in and see that the women have chosen the "lower paying job".
But that still doesn't account for the entire pay gap. It still leaves about 7% difference.
That last 7% is what people are concerned about. That women doing the same job with the same experience get about 7% less on average than men, depending on the field. In some fields (I believe medicine is one), there is no pay gap between women and men with equal experience (although there is still an opportunity gap, where men will be promoted more often with equal qualifications).
Then there is tech, where there is a pay gap between people with equal experience. I've seen this personally first-hand (but at least when the manager was called out on it he made it right and gave the woman a raise, but before being called out, it didn't even occur to him that he was making that decision).
> I have no idea why income HAS TO be distributed equally.
Because people doing the same work should get paid the same for doing it. And because you shouldn't be barred from a career for reasons that aren't related to the job (ie. your gender).
Given that women are 1/2 the population, and given the sample size, women and men should on average be making the same amount of money. But they aren't. And study after study show that the reason is bias against women, and not women's choices.
Don't you think that is something that should be changed?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier? Some are living in their parents basement until they're 30 to 40. It has been hypothesized that with the breakdown of families in the US, men are giving up, and that includes efforts to build a stable foundation for their family. See MGTOW but dont read too much, it can be kind of depressing.
> Some are living in their parents basement until they're 30 to 40. I understand this is considered a bad thing, and it makes sense at a societal level, but honestly it sounds like a pretty amazing life. Maybe that would have been boring and depressing pre-internet, but it seems pretty good now. I know one dude who essentially grifted his way into the disability system, and I've watched him go from an anxious mess to…
Old reference but the classic song "Scrubs" by TLC is is about not wanting to date a "scrub" and describes a "scrub" as "lives at home with your mama"
Conversely, in many Asian countries it's common to live at home until well into your 30s and 40s. In know families in most Asian countries where 3 generations live in the same house.
You can go through the dating sites in various countries here and see 30, 40, 50yr olds still living in their parents house. (it's a standard question on many Asian oriented dating sites) They may have studied abroad, or lived else where for a while but moved back in and no one blinks an eye. There's no or very little stigma unlike the USA.
"[Women] make up 13.8% of mining and logging jobs, up from 12.6% a year earlier..." That seems like a huge recomposition in a single year. What caused this?