Okay, explain this.

Katie Roiphe, progressive author and journalism professor at NYU (seems to be a lot of repetition in that sentence), defends single motherhood against moralizing scolds:

I happen to have two children with two different fathers, neither of whom I live with, and both of whom we are close to. I am lucky enough to be living in financially stable, relatively privileged circumstances, and to have had the education that allows me to do so. I am not the “typical” single mother, but then there is no typical single mother any more than there is a typical mother. It is, in fact, our fantasies and crude stereotypes of this “typical single mother” that get in the way of a more rational, open-minded understanding of the variety and richness of different kinds of families.

The structure of my household is messy, bohemian, warm. If there is anything that currently oppresses the children, it is the idea of the way families are “supposed to be,” an idea pushed — in picture books and classrooms and in adults’ casual conversation — on American children at a very early age and with surprising aggressiveness.

A British consumer survey recently released its list of children's most wanted presents this Christmas.

Coming in at number 10: a Dad.

Right to Work

U.S. Department of Commerce data shows that BMW's Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant is the largest automotive exporter in the country. Since 1994, its first production year, the company has continued to invest and add models to the lineup of vehicles produced there, which now include the X3, X5 and X6 models, and with the $900M expansion underway, will add the new X4 — increasing total production to a whopping 350,000 vehicles per year. The company expects that 70% of the production will be exported to more than 130 markets worldwide. Once the expansion is complete, the plant will cover five-million square feet, employ 8,000 workers, and represent a cumulative $6.3B investment by BMW.

And all that without the UAW.

(article behind BMW Car Club of America pay wall)

Bringing the disgraced into disrepute

European officials accept Nobel Peace Prize

NATO? NATO who?

Collectivism on Parade

Youth unemployment in Europe has gone from merely stratospheric to astronomic.

Throughout the European Union, unemployment among those aged 15 to 24 is soaring — 22 percent in France … But those are only percentages among those looking for work. There is another category: those who are “not in employment, education or training,” or NEETs, as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development calls them. And according to a study by the European Union’s research agency, Eurofound, there are as many as 14 million out-of-work and disengaged young Europeans, costing member states an estimated 153 billion euros, or about $200 billion, a year in welfare benefits and lost production — 1.2 percent of the bloc’s gross domestic product.

… In France, it’s 16.7 percent — nearly two million young people …

For the innumerate, that means nearly 39% are doing nothing. (That is nearly three times the comparable the U.S. rate.)

Collectivism's parade of horribles is easy to see:

This is a “floating generation,” made worse by the euro crisis, and its plight is widely seen as a failure of the system: an elitist educational tradition that does not integrate graduates into the work force, a rigid labor market that is hard to enter, and a tax system that makes it expensive for companies to hire full-time employees and both difficult and expensive to lay them off.

...

Ms. Sonnet, the O.E.C.D. economist, said that high youth unemployment is a regular problem in France. Companies are afraid to commit to permanent hiring when economic growth is stagnant and charges for social benefits are so high, and the educational system tends to value liberal arts over technical or industrial expertise.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with any of this; after all, the collective has used its superior knowledge and intellect to ensure social justice.

Right?

Without cost, nothing has value. Their education system is a sinkhole. The real reason the "rigid labor market is hard to enter" has nothing to do with hired, and everything to do with getting fired. Standard collectivist misdirection charges companies for social benefits. It is the perfect way to convince people there is such a thing as "free".

Mysteriously left unmentioned in this NYT article is minimum wage. In France, it is $12.35 per hour, more than 65% higher than in the U.S.

And I'll bet the next NYT editorial advocating an increase our minimum wage will resoundingly fail to note the unmentionable.

Being a collectivist means never having to say you are sorry, because you are immune to the obvious.