SavvySugar

Lunchtime Poll: You Win Five Million But the World Is Going to End

SavvySugar — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:59:51 -0800

Heathers is one of those movies that I'll always watch when it's randomly on TV. Just classic. It made a cameo on my screen just the other day and I had to bring one of their famous lunchtime polls to you. So, in the words of Heather and Veronica: You win five million dollars from Publishers Sweepstakes, but on the same day what's his face gives you the check, aliens land on earth and say they're going to blow up the world in two days. What would you do?

Was the McCartney-Mills Divorce Settlement Fair?

SavvySugar — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:43:20 -0700

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills finally settled their divorce this week. She began the process requesting $254 million but ended up getting $48.6 million from the settlement. There was no prenuptial agreement involved when the couple married in 2002, and while Heather had some of her own acquired wealth it came no where close to the $800 million that Paul has in his Beatles name.

After the settlement was finalized, Heather said, “It was an incredible result in the end, to secure mine and my daughter’s future and that of all the charities that I obviously plan on helping and making a difference with - because, you know, it has been my life for 20 years.” However, her behavior in the courtroom suggested that she wasn't as happy with the results as she let on. The former model poured a glass of water over the head of Paul McCartney's attorney, Fiona Shackleton, and left her head soaking wet. And I don't think she was channeling sports teams that pour Gatorade over their coach's head when they win a big game.

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Women Poised to Dominate Work Force For First Time

SavvySugar — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:30:52 -0800

The traditional American family has featured a man as the breadwinner, but as with everything these days, this traditional frame of mind is being challenged by the greater economic picture. For the first time in American history, women are in a position to outnumber men in the work force. Let that sink in for a moment, and read more.

Men have endured the overwhelming majority of layoffs during this recession, representing 82 percent of the total job losses. As it turns out, the traditional roles that women have assumed in nurturing jobs like health care and education are also relatively recession-proof, while male-dominated fields like manufacturing and construction have been pummeled by the economy.

It's a double-edged sword, in a sense. As Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress explained, "Given how stark and concentrated the job losses are among men, and that women represented a high proportion of the labor force in the beginning of this recession, women are now bearing the burden - or the opportunity, one could say - of being breadwinners."

It is apparent the American work force is going through dynamic changes, gender-based and otherwise. What do you make of this news?

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Women Retreating From Workforce For First Time in Decades

SavvySugar — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:09:53 -0700

For the first time since the 1960's women's movement, the number of women in the workforce has started to decline. The weak economy has caused job loss all around and government data shows that women are losing their jobs for the same reasons as men. According to The New York Times, downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut are factors that have been reducing the percentage of women in the workforce for the past few years.

The Joint Economic Committee of Congress led the Congressional study, and senior economist Heather Boushey commented, "When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids. We did not think it was the economy, but when we looked into it, we realized that it was." Median pay for women workers aged 24 to 54 had fallen from $15.04 in 2004 to $14.84 an hour in 2007, and economist Nancy Folbre thinks women are reluctant to accept these terms because they'd gotten used to seeing wages at least stay the same.

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Prenups Are Legally Binding, But Not Everywhere

SavvySugar — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:37:19 -0700

Charlotte's first Sex and the City husband, Trey McDougall, comes from Scottish blood, but he'd probably be a proponent of the UK Law Commission's discussion to make prenuptial agreements legally binding.

Americans are no strangers to the legal contracts that outline the division of assets in case of divorce, while couples in the UK haven't been operating under the same options. Remember when Paul McCartney paid Heather Mills a settlement of $48.6 million as the result of an intense divorce proceeding? The exhausting process and enormous payout could have been avoided if English courts recognized prenups.

Opponents of legally binding prenups are concerned about a higher divorce rate, but proponents argue that without these contracts some couples aren't getting married at all, especially if they've had a previous marriage. There's plenty of time to argue; The Law Commission plans on publishing a drafted bill in 2012 and its projected that it would be 2014 before any law passes.

What do you think? Would legally binding prenups be beneficial or should the UK maintain its status quo?

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