Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

NEWTON'S OPTIC: THE ANSWER to all our problems is staring us in the face. It may even be quite literally staring at you, right now, across the breakfast table.
So put the paper down, stare back and ask yourself a selfless question.
Does the woman in your life really need a job?
Admittedly, this is not a fashionable question. From Iceland to Australia, men are blamed for causing the credit crunch, while a more feminine approach to finance is proposed as the solution.
Of course there will always be a place in the world of business for exceptional women. Women also have an important role to play in jobs that are too demeaning for men, like teaching. But the general employment of women is another matter. Indeed, working women almost certainly caused the credit crunch by bringing a second income into the average household, pushing property prices up to unsustainable levels.
Whether working women actually caused the credit crunch is now a moot point. The point is that removing women from the workforce would mitigate its effects.
Consider the issue of unemployment. There were 221,301 men on the live register last month and just under one million women in work.
Surely at least half these women have a partner who is earning? Surely at least half would be happier at home? One half of one half is a quarter and one quarter of a million is roughly 221,301. I think we can all see where this argument is going.
It would be ludicrous to suggest that women should be sacked purely to give men their jobs. In many cases, their jobs should be abolished as well.
Women are twice as likely as men to work in the public sector. They account for two-thirds of the Civil Service and three- quarters of all public employees.
Yet they are barely represented in the useful public services of firefighting and arresting people. Encouraging women to leave the workforce would go a long way towards addressing the budget deficit without any downside whatsoever.
Further benefits of sacking women have been uncovered by the Central Gender Mainstreaming Unit at the Department of Justice. According to its research, twice as many woman as men travel to work by bus and train, potentially halving the impact of cutbacks in public transport. However, it is probable that three-quarters of the Central Gender Mainstreaming Unit’s staff are women, so these figures should be taken with a pinch of salt.
While the economic case for fewer women in the workforce is irrefutable, we should also acknowledge the social advantages. Women make the majority of spending decisions in Irish households and make almost all of the purchases. They are far more likely than men to regard shopping as a leisure activity, far less likely to make savings and investments, and were even almost twice as likely to spend their SSIAs.
In short, women were the driving force behind the greed, consumerism and materialism of the Celtic Tiger years and it was female employment that funded their oestrogen-crazed acquisitiveness.
The time has come to build a more sustainable, equitable and progressive society. Why not make a start by telling your other half to quit her job? She can ask you for the housekeeping on Friday.

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

Yawn.

Where did you dig this tosh up from Bison. Surely you could start a thread on something more useful like 'What's your favourite flavour of Monster Munch'??

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

Don' be daft Bison, it's those nasty immigrant foreign workers that have caused the credit crunch. If everyone in the UK bought British goods and only employed Brits, there would be no problems...:rofl:

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

Yes, civil services need a chainsaw taken to them in many European countries but they should fire people based on lack of ability (shouldn't be hard, just fire everyone and 90% of the time you'll be right ;)).

The other thing is that working in the private sector isn't nearly as good for women often because they fall behind men through having children and often face other hardships, anyone who has worked in the public sector will tell you it's a very different environment because it's not competitively driven.

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

The spicy ones for me, the big red bags - MMMMMMM!

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

aye, the spicy bits stick to your fingers...yummmm

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

and bung up your teeth. But still irresistable.

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

Bison you're being a bit silly now aren't you?

This is a valid subject but you're not giving it credit.

We can argue that unemployed men are more likely to commit crime that unemployed women so fewer women should work.

We can argue that women are often paid less to do the same job and if they have maternity leave cost companies more than men.

We can argue the implications of encouraging mothers to work (and making it financially tough for them not to work even with a man about) has effects on children we're still learning about and few seem good.

There's quite a few issues we can argue but stating women should only do jobs that are demeaning to men, like teaching (wtf??) is nuts - good teachers should be respected male or female...

N.

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

They should only be allowed to teach if they are fit though :thumbup:

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

...we could argue that many mothers would like to stay at home to raise their kids, but their menfolk don't actually earn enough to pay the bills... [in the UK, I mean]

The National Front in France came out with a very similar manifesto in 1996, earning them 3rd place in the elections... got it from them, perchance?

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

Indeed - something's been going on for a while now in western society to help break up families and deny mothers the right to be at home with their children instead of breaking their backs earning to suppliment their man's income. I think the government should give money to help working families instead of paying out to people who choose to have loads of kids and not work.

Never heard of the French National Front - will have to look them up when I get a mo.

N.

Re: Women Caused The Credit Crunch
 

well, funnily enough - I've been looking into this - the government does try to encourage going back to work through Working Tax Credits... the only thing being that your household income needs to be less than £15k/yr to qualify... which essentially disqualifies you from any hope of having your own home (and therefore you won't have THE major bill to pay out every month).

When you're earning less than £15k/yr, all kinds of other benefits kick in, so in terms of outgoings, you could be better off earning less.

The thing is - and more's the pity - a woman can't actually be paid for sprogging. All maternity benefits have a clause that means you have to have been employed and earning for a certain period within a certain period before your due date. Discovered that the hard way... taking 22 months (for example :o ) off work between kids entitles a woman to a big fat £0 from the state.

---

French National Front is called the "Front National" - the French equivalent of the BNP (immigrants out, France for the French, focus on family values, etc...) headed by a certain Mr Le Penn a few years back. He came 3rd in the Presidential elections, if I remember rightly. Very worrying. More worrying still, was that *I think* my boyfriend at the time voted for them.

FN