N001488
Wednesday, January 09, 2002 5:46 PM
Women's Victim Compensation
Our government has justified the war on Afghanistan's Taliban by pointing
out that: 1) The Taliban harbored the terrorists who attacked us, and 2) The
Taliban abused human rights and especially those of women. This is abhorrent
to us, because here we know men and women to be equal. That said, it is
astonishing to learn that the FEDERAL compensation fund for victims of
September 11 is partly basing payments on gender (as well as salary).
Michael Rozen, the deputy special master of the fund, has said, "We will
certainly take into account differing work life expectancies between men and
women."
On average, women work five years less than men. The statisticians in charge
of calculating how to pay out the fund factor in this statistic, but not the
unpaid labor of having and raising children. They don't count average 25
hours of housework per week that working women do (compared to 10 hours for
men). A paid lifetime of this work could add up to $300,000. The
statisticians don't include statistics that show that the higher a woman's
educational level, the longer her work life. Since more women now attend
college than men, the gap in work life expectancy is narrowing even more.
None of this counts.
The fund is using statistics at least two years old; there isn't time for
new statistics to be factored in because the fund must start paying out NOW.
Here's a novel idea: Throw out the statistics and grab a calculator. Divide
the amount of money in the fund by the number of victims. Value all life
equally.
Sincerely,
Individual Comment
Decatur, GA