Thoughts on Liberty of Contract
By Godfrey Bloom
Yet again I laboured in vain on radio London yesterday morning to advocate liberty of contract in the field of employment. I waxed eloquent, I quoted Lord Salisbury; I gave as far as time allowed detailed information, the same old chestnut. Why are women so hard done by?
My interviewer gleefully cited Rwanda as recording more equal pay with men than the UK. This reinforced my point; in Rwanda they are not burdened by thousands of regulations; they leave it to employer and employee to hammer out a mutually beneficial agreement.
But what about Germany? They employ more women there than here. Well so what? I thought. Who cares? But if you do you might well dwell on the fact Germany has no minimum wage ergo they are more flexible.
I have done this kind of interview many times, usually with women of a certain genre, young, educated, always public sector or big institution. Often pleasant and charming. Sadly they have no confidence in the female of the species. They genuinely believe women cannot survive in a modern industrial democracy without state sponsorship. Paradoxically these ladies see themselves the antecedents of the 1970s feminists without their rather unattractive baggage.
Yet I long since adopted the mantle of cheer leader for the modern woman. 40 years in financial services and 30 in women’s sport sponsorship have given me an unshakeable faith in their ability to tackle anything. My mother was a senior NCO in the wartime WAAF so I was already predisposed to this opinion.
How can we change this negative view of women in the media? We must get more women of achievement into the classroom. Yachtswomen, surgeons, captains of industry, senior players in the professions, these role models can breed confidence in students and pupils. Some of the senior public schools are encouraging this approach; a life outside teaching brings a broader perspective.
I should like to see a system of encouraging young people to think, get away from box ticking education. An educated, attractive and articulate young woman should not stare in a bewildered uncomprehending way at a concept that Lord Salisbury promoting over 100 years ago.
Liberty of contract in a free society is not as difficult as all that.
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This makes about as much sense as typical Paul Marks post (though mercifully it’s shorter). There are less women managers, successful entrepreneurs, IT specialists, etc., etc. for real reasons due to actual sex differences (biology) that wishing won’t make go away.
If you are determined to have a society where men and women are mathematically equally represented in lifetime wages and employment, short of everyone but the political elite being equally dirt poor as in Rwanda, you’ll need to legislate it that way… which, again for inevitable reasons due to the nature of reality, will end up with everyone but the political elite being equally dirt poor.
I think it’s outrageous that the people that empty my dustbin every week are always men. Why are women being denied their rightful share of these positions?
Mr Pate – Mr Bloom is supporting liberty of contract, if you have something to say about liberty of contract (pro or anti) then please do so. If not – bugger off.
Mr Bloom is correct – liberty of contact is the correct approach (morally and practically). And sadly the world is moving further and further away from it (the “Labour Code” of countries such as Italy is insane, making mass unemployment inevitable, – and even Germany is introducing a government “minimum wage law” soon).
However, Mr Bloom is also correct that if one is in favour of liberty of contract one does not get a chance to explain one’s position, One is denounced as a “racist”, “sexist” (everything “ist”) and someone who wants to grind the faces of the poor (even if one is poor – as I am). People do not actually listen to what one is saying – they just assume one is a evil hireling of “big business”.
This (ironically enough) includes some “big business” people themselves – partly because some of them are terrified of expressing non P.C. opinions (after all we live in a world where even a CEO of a major company may be forced to resign if he ever expressed an opinion contrary to, for example, “Gay Marriage”), partly because they go to university the same as media people do – they (big business executives) are just as likely to have wrong headed political opinions as other folk.
Actually I was being unfair – Mr Pate’s comment is (indirectly) in favour of liberty of contract, I think he is in favour of it (good for you my dear).
Aynuk – yes I have often thought this myself, And security guards on 12 shifts in the cold starting at 0500.
Women are being denied their rightful share of these jobs – it is an outrage!