The Unintended Consequences of Getting What You Ask For

It would be interesting what my potential descendants would have to say about this video. Currently, in Canada, women do dominate in Universities. My son, Edward, chose to work in the "trades," and the year after he graduated, he had paid off all of his debts and saved $16,000. I am thankful his lady (who has a university degree in a Stem field) decided to break with convention and elected to connect with my son and not pursue a University "Chad" instead. He is twenty-eight, and earlier this year, they bought a house. Edward could have paid it off, but I am happy he has chosen a better strategy to deal with his investments.

The title of this article, "The Unintended Consequences of Getting What You Ask For," reflects what happens to people who decide that their opinions are better. One hundred years ago, women were not persons under Canadian law. If you look back into history, the people who created the rules were the ones who paid taxes. Before 1917 the people who paid taxes were the landowners. One of my great-grandmothers is an excellent example. Her husband died, and the title of the farm passed into her name, so she paid taxes and consequently had the right to vote.

Imagine a case where a wife or unmarried daughter earned more than her landowning husband or father. Since the land title wasn't in the woman's name, the husband or father was obligated to pay the taxes on the wife or daughter's earnings. It wasn't that there was some Patriarchy holding women in bondage, it was that neither the rights nor responsibilities had been codified. If you go back to the time when the aristocracy owned everything, the idea that the peasant class would own property was unimaginable. "Renting" of land was typically a sharecropping agreement with the one who own the land and the one who worked the land.

Eventually, when the peasants could own the land, it was generally the case that it was owned by the men (unless they died). Remember that men's life expectancy was around 30 at this time and less for women. Unlike today, men tended to be ten years older (or more) than women. Starvation was a reality, and women chose men appropriately. It wasn't until 1929 that our society had progressed enough that people put into law what had been happening for a few decades. Women were able to live independently. The unintended consequence is that women now had to pay their own taxes.

It is almost 100 years later. In North America, women have competed with men for university placements. Women like to engage with men who are superior. Deny education to men and you end up with fewer "superior" men.