The $849,000 Penalty for Being Born Female

[TalkingDog]

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/07/14/high-price-of-being-born-female/

Link goes to a slideshow detailing the costs, which include things like: more costly insurance, longer lifespan, lower pay, etc.

[xmas74]

1. Have you read the sheer nastiness of some of the comments?

Wow! It's like a slap in the face.

[sufrommich]

2. Those are men's right activist,they're nasty and they're

everywhere ,including here.

[xmas74]

5. I know they're here.

I have a few on ignore.

They really don't understand, do they?

[sufrommich]

8. No,they don't. They are so toxic,they're considered

a hate group.

[xmas74]

9. And yet are still allowed to post their hate here.

I don't know how many times I alerted back on the old DU and here, yet nothing seems to happen.

[Odin2005]

22. One of the usual MRA'ers just showed up.

[sufrommich]

27. I put them all on ignore. I'm disappointed that

crap is allowed here.

[Ilsa]

4. I read a few comments and had to stop.

The bitter commenters think all women are whores, marrying only for money, and spending every night out at bars for free Ladies Night drinks, as if that negates the higher health insurance premiums and lower pay.

[xmas74]

6. That's the one that killed me.

The comments about abuse shelters, friends giving free haircuts and free drinks at Ladies Night.

What the hell!

[Nederland]

3. Longer Lifespan?

I'm supposed to view that as a "penalty" for being born female?

By that logic we could eliminate the "penalty" entirely by killing all females at birth...

[xmas74]

7. It can become one later on

when you add in the finances involved with living longer. If the money just isn't there, what are we supposed to do?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

17. Clearly, the benefits of living longer outweigh the penalties of living longer...

as evidenced by the number poeple currently living such a scenario (given the simplicity of remedying the inverse scenario).

[TalkingDog]

11. The penalty comes with the COSTS of living longer. Try reading the article please.

Jeebus....

[xmas74]

19. That's what I was thinking.

It's because women live longer is why they are penalized in other ways.

They just don't want to read the article.

[EOTE]

21. So living longer is an inherent disadvantage of being female. Gotcha.

Oh, the horrors of long life. When will women wisen up and start dying earlier? And yes, I read the article, it's pretty fucking ludicrous. Women are penalized because they take more time off work? How terrible it is to take more days off work and live longer. I thank god every day that I get to die sooner and work more. It's great to be a man!

[Nederland]

43. I did read the article

You should try reading the article while imagining how it comes across to someone other than you.

Imagine what would happen if you wrote a post titled "The Penalty for Being Born White" and included the fact that whites live longer than Hispanics and African Americans. What kind of response do you think you'd get?

[LanternWaste]

25. It is in fact,an objective *financial* penalty

It is in fact,an objective and measurable *financial* penalty, regardless of how one may or may not perceive it as compared or contrasted to other contexts....




Maintaining a sense of context within the overall premise does allow us to better comprehend both what is being written, and the ultimate conclusion of what is being written... without the added penalty of appearing as a sub-literate jack-ass.

[loli phabay]

35. living longer shouldnt that be seen as a good thing?

[taught_me_patience]

10. I'd gladly spend $200k to live another five years

Hard to take this article seriously when they label that as a "penalty".

[TalkingDog]

12. So you are 85, you can't find a job, you are eating cat food and you can't

afford medical bills.... that's living to you?

[NCTraveler]

20. Is that what 85 yo women are up to?

Something I have always wondered.

[lumberjack_jeff]

34. I guess they should have spent their husband's life insurance check more wisely. n/t

[loli phabay]

36. as opposed to what being dead, i would rather be 85 and struggling rather than in the ground.

[lumberjack_jeff]

37. It costs a lot of money to live a long time! Think of all the money that black people save!

The exact "logic" used here (the cost of being a woman includes the cost of an additional 5 years of living) could be applied to race since we unfortunate white people must bear the cost of an additional 5 years of life.

The OP is ludicrous bordering on offensive.

[LanternWaste]

26. I'd imagine it's just as hard to take posters seriously

"Hard to take this article seriously..."

I'd imagine it's just as hard to take posters seriously who are either unable or unwilling to see the implied context of a *financial*" penalty, and rather interpret it as living itself being a penalty.

I'd imagine that's either a sign of being sub-literate, or simply embracing one's own intractable dogma...

[MattBaggins]

28. It's both

[Egalitarian Thug]

31. Beat me to it. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. This is the most ridiculous thing I've read this week. Complete gibberish.

For starters (of a very long list) it would seem apparent to anyone with even the most rudimentary grasp of math that it cannot be possible that the bare minimum survival need for an individual is an amount equal to the median HOUSEHOLD income in the US.

[TalkingDog]

15. Okay, I accept your thesis statement. Now defend it.

Why is it complete gibberish?

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. I edited to add one example.

But, for another; do you consider your weekend "a cost"?

Most reasonable people don't consider time that they voluntarily take off of work an expense.

Another, for good measure: In some states, prior to health care reform, insurers were able to pass along the 33% greater health care spending for women to them. Now, those additional costs are passed on to men instead. Gender is the biggest predictor of health care spending, primarily due to women's longer lives. With ACA, men subsidize the cost of that longer life.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361028/

[MattBaggins]

30. Taking time off for family

is just like a vacation or a weekend.

WOW

[lumberjack_jeff]

33. It is elective time off. Yes.

The OP is idiocy. It's Lewis Carroll territory. "Woe is me!! Does no one realize how much it costs to live so long? How much it costs to choose to not work?"

[Odin2005]

23. The irony of this post = LOL

"Men's Rights" is the gibberish.

[loli phabay]

38. uh what men shouldnt have rights or have i missed something.

[lumberjack_jeff]

41. Ad hominem.

He means "okay, you win, but it makes me ever-so mad."

[randome]

14. Yeah, well, just...don't do it again.

[FourScore]

16. Oh yay! Another gender war thread on DU.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. living longer is a bad thing?

[Motown_Johnny]

29. That was my thought. I wonder if inheritances are factored in.

I would think that inheriting money and possibly collecting on a spouse's life insurance might offset some portion of that $849,000.


Good thing ACA eliminates that extra cost for medical insurance. At least we made one small step in the right direction.

[crazyjoe]

32. wow, living longer is a penalty? I stopped reading when i got to that little tidbit.

[Zalatix]

40. The rest of it was accurate, but "living longer" is NOT a penalty.

I'll take that extra 5 years if anyone thinks it's a penalty!

[Bonobo]

39. I would like to see how many extra hours men have to work as wage slaves...

They can take the extra wage slave hours, combine them with the lower life expectancy and come up with a reasonable estimate for how many less hours of freedom men have in order to live and do what they want.

[HiPointDem]

42. so dumb that it must have been written to crank up the gender war. divide & conquer!