existIn the coming week, the key cabinet members nominated by Trump will face the ultimate "big test"-the Senate committees will hold cabinet confirmation hearings one after another..

According to the U.S. Constitution, the President has the right to nominate cabinet members, but they can only be formally appointed after being examined and approved by the Senate. Positions that must be approved by the Senate include cabinet members, heads of federal administrative departments, ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, federal court judges and chairman of the Federal Reserve. The related affairs committee of the Senate will review the background, qualifications, political inclination and financial status of the nominee, so as to judge the nominee’s qualifications. In American history, most presidential nominations have been approved.Only nine times have senators rejected cabinet nominations..

Trump’s presidential team

As a president with no formal political background, Trump’s personnel appointment is relatively efficient. He is the second president to announce two cabinet candidates in the first week after Nixon was elected president in 1968. In contrast, Obama announced the first cabinet member in the third week after his election in 2008.

Although Trump is methodical in personnel appointment, the cabinet candidates he has announced one after another are still controversial-Republicans, whites, rich people and soldiers appear frequently in the list.

Keyword 1: Businessman

At present, among the 13 cabinet members nominated by Trump, there are five wealthy businessmen.. Trump, who is also a businessman, frequently throws an olive branch to his business colleagues when nominating cabinet members. The five cabinet ministers, including the Secretary of State, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Commerce, the Minister of Labor and the Minister of Education, are all from the business community, among which there are many billionaires. According to Forbes magazine’s estimate, these five people are worth a total of $4.4 billion.

Historically, there have been many precedents for Republicans to choose people from the financial sector to preside over the finance and business departments. Barbara Franklin and Carlos Gutierrez, two commerce ministers during the Bush-son period, were both corporate CEOs, and all three finance ministers came from big consortia such as Goldman Sachs.

So,If Trump’s nomination for the two ministers of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce is reasonable, it is special to nominate Rex W. Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, as Secretary of State.. As the number one figure in the cabinet, the importance of the Secretary of State is self-evident. Similar to Trump, Tillerson is a businessman with no political background. Before him, 68 secretaries of state appointed by successive presidents of the United States had political experience, and Trump’s move was widely regarded as a firm manifestation of his anti-establishment stance. According to Xinhua News Agency, as the "most pro-Putin American" in the cabinet, Tillerson also has close contacts with the Saudi oil minister and the Qatar royal family. Coupled with the business relationship with Trump himself, it is reasonable for Trump to choose him as an important cabinet post.

Keyword 2: Soldiers

In Trump’s nominated cabinet list, james mathis, Secretary of Defense, and John Kelly, Secretary of Homeland Security, both held important positions in the military. The former was the commander of the US Central Command, commanding the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; The latter is the former commander of the US Southern Command, responsible for the US military missions in Central and South America and the Caribbean. In addition, Trump’s nomination list can be described as "land, sea and air". Interior Minister Ryan Zinke served in the US Navy and reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel when he retired; Attorney General Jeff Sessions served in the US Army and reached the rank of captain when he retired; Rick Perry, the energy secretary, was a captain in the US Air Force before he retired.

Is it reasonable for Trump to appoint so many people with military backgrounds? Diao Daming, an assistant researcher at the American Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the Trump team seems to have many soldiers, but it has not deviated from the historical track in essence, but has continued some traditions of the Republican Party and even the two parties. Apart from the fact that the Minister of National Defense is the first military defense chief since 1950 and the Minister of Homeland Security is the first military minister in history, other military nominations are not special.

Keyword 3: Minority women

In a list of cabinet-level officials filled with "men" and "whites", two ethnic minority women stand out, namely Zhao Xiaolan, Minister of Transportation of Chinese descent, and Nikki R. Haley, Indian Ambassador to the United Nations.

As an important cabinet member during the Bush-son political period, Zhao Xiaolan’s resume can be described as glamorous. She is the first Chinese to enter the cabinet in American history, the first Chinese "White House scholar" and an outstanding representative of the famous think tank Hudson Institute. In addition, Zhao Xiaolan has a special identity-the wife of Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the Senate. Judging from Trump’s previously announced governance framework, 550 billion US dollars of infrastructure construction is a big core, and a large part will be used for basic transportation construction such as roads and bridges. In the future, both the successful appointment of Zhao Xiaolan and the passage of the 550 billion infrastructure investment bill need to be approved by Congress. With this relationship with McConnell, we can win more support more or less.

Another minority woman, 44-year-old Nikki Haley, is the youngest incumbent governor in the United States and the first female governor in the history of South Carolina. Judging from the sex ratio of successive American ambassadors to the United Nations, men account for the vast majority (Obama appointed three female ambassadors in two consecutive terms, which is an exception). The Wall Street Journal pointed out in a commentary that as a president who came to power with strong support from the white class, the election of an Indian woman to the United Nations will help to make Trump’s cabinet team more diversified.

Who is about to face the Senate "big exam"

In the coming week, at least nine Trump-nominated cabinet members will attend hearings of Senate committees, including:

-On January 10th, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will consider John Kelly, the nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security.

-On January 10th and 11th, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nominee for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.

-On January 11th and 12th, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider Secretary of State nominee Rex W. Rex Tillerson.

-On January 11th, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will consider Mike Pompeo, the nominee for CIA Director.

-On January 11th, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will consider Betsy DeVos, the nominee for the Minister of Education.

-On January 11th, the Senate Committee on Trade, Science and Transportation will consider Zhao Xiaolan, the nominee of the Secretary of Transportation.

-On January 12th, the Senate Committee on Trade, Science and Transportation will consider Wilbur Ross, the nominee for Secretary of Commerce.

-On January 12th, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will consider the nomination of Ben Carson as Minister of Housing and Urban Development.

-On January 12th, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will consider Andy Puzder, the nominee of Labor Minister.

In a report on January 9th, The New York Times pointed out that since the FBI has not completed the background check of all the nominees, Democrats hope to postpone the Republican hearing on Tuesday by all means.

However, the majority leader of the US Senate, McConnell, once said that he was unwilling to reschedule any hearing, and warned the Democrats as a minority not to set up any obstacles in the hearing. Not only that, when he participated in the CBS program Facing the Country, he said: "All these trivial and perfunctory complaints are related to the frustration they felt when they lost both the White House and the Senate majority."

During this period, the divorce war between South Korean stars Hye-seon Ku and Ahn Jae hyun was raging. In the tug-of-war of divorce, the man broke the news that the woman asked for 30 thousand won a day for housework, which was converted into RMB 176 yuan a day and more than 5,200 yuan a month. The broad masses of people who eat melons have said, please give me a dozen domestic workers of Hye-seon Ku’s standard.

If we change our perspective from gossip discussion to academic discussion, there are actually two interesting questions:

1. Does housework have monetary value?

2. If there is monetary value, how to price it? Let’s discuss it separately below.

No.1 does housework have monetary value?

Housework refers to a kind of work that family members do in their daily family life.Unpaid labor. It usually is.Serve family members.Including but not limited to washing and cooking, looking after children, buying daily necessities, cleaning and hygiene, caring for the elderly or patients, etc. Generally speaking,It is both a production activity and a consumption activity..

Whether housework has price or monetary value has always been controversial in economics and sociology. The traditional view is that the products of housework are not born for sale, so they do not produce production value, and it is even more impossible to constitute the source of surplus value.

On the other hand, according to Marx’s theory of labor value, the value of commodities is determined by the socially necessary labor time condensed in commodities.

Housework itselfCondensed labor, paid labor time and formed labor products., so it should be valuable. Although housework has become a private labor because of the emergence of private ownership and family, this private labor is still an important part of the socialized division of labor system.Its existence ensures the smooth progress of other social production activities.. In other words, if there is no housework, individuals may need to use money to buy corresponding services instead of its existence, thus proving its monetary value in reverse.

From a broader perspective, some studies have found that if housework is not considered,It is impossible to correctly calculate the market productivity and the real consumption of society. Becker, a well-known economist, proposed to bring housework into the national GDP system in 1985. Since then, many developed countries have also calculated the proportion of housework in GDP, ranging from more than 20% in Japan to more than 50% in Australia and other countries.

No.2 how to price housework?

If we think that housework has monetary value, a more important problem is how to price it. At present, there are four mainstream methods in academic circles.

One is the comprehensive substitution methodThat is, the value of housework is replaced by the income level of full-time domestic service workers. The advantage of this method is that the calculation is very simple, and the remuneration of domestic workers in various regions can be directly regarded as the market price of housework. However, this method is easy to underestimate its value, because not all housework can be replaced by domestic servants.

The second is the professional substitution method.That is, each activity of housework is separated, replaced by similar professional income level in market labor, and then merged into the total housework value. This method is also easy to underestimate the value of housework, because the labor efficiency of market specialization is generally high.

One person is better than six.

The following figure shows a calculation table for the value of housework in the eastern coastal cities of the United States, and the method used is the professional substitution method.

The third is the opportunity cost method.That is, the value of housework is estimated by the salary return (shadow price) that domestic workers may get in the labor market when they go out to work at the same time. This method assumes that domestic workers can be fully employed in the market and get the maximum value return, which obviously overestimates the value of domestic work. Take Hye-seon Ku as an example. If all the value of her housework is converted into the reward of spending the same time as an actress, the compensation for housework will be astronomical.

Balala energy! Compensation for housework!

The fourth is the family food law., that is, the consumption cost, which is produced by the family not cooking, is regarded as the value of housework. Obviously, this method greatly simplifies housework, which may cause great deviation.

It can be seen that there is no widely accepted perfect scheme for measuring housework, but these methods can still show us the upper and lower limits of the value of housework. It is worth noting that,Due to the great difference in the wage level between the domestic service market and the employment market in different regions, the value of housework in different regions is also quite different..

A research paper in 2018 used the first three methods mentioned above and the survey data of nutrition and health in China to calculate the monetary value of housework in different regions of China in 2011 (Liao Yuhang, 2018). The data shows that every family in China needs about 6 hours of housework every day, and the average daily working time of the wife is 4 hours, while that of the husband is about 2 hours. In contrast, American women spend 2.24 hours doing housework every day, while men spend 1.38 hours participating in it.

The figure below shows the value of housework in different regions and its proportion in local GDP. in general; generally speaking; on the wholeThe value of housework in the south is greater than that in the north..The more developed areas, the higher the overall value of housework.However, this does not mean that its proportion in GDP is higher. "The proportion of housework to GDP is also related to the wage level and economic growth, but it is inversely related. The more developed the economy, the higher the shadow price of unit housework time, and residents will take efficient ways to replace or reduce housework, thus making the relative ratio of housework to GDP lower (Liao Yuhang, 2018)". Simply put, if you can get a higher return by going out to work, individuals will choose to buy services instead of housework, which will reduce the contribution of housework to GDP in this area.

Source: Liao Yuhang. Estimation of housework value [J]. statistics and decision, 2018(8):38-42.

Q&A anonymous netizen

Since housework is valuable and can be monetized, should a couple ask for a supplementary fee for housework when they divorce?

Article 40 of China’s new marriage law stipulates: "Husband and wife agree in writing that the property acquired during the marriage relationship belongs to each other. If one party pays more obligations for raising children, caring for the elderly and assisting the other party in work, he has the right to ask the other party for compensation when divorcing, and the other party shall make compensation. This article provides that the party who undertakes more housework under the separate property system enjoys the right of economic compensation in divorce. The provisions of this article are essentially the recognition of the value of housework, so that the party (mostly women) who has a weaker economic status and undertakes more housework can enjoy financial compensation when divorced. "

From this point of view, at the legal level, this is completely feasible. But what we want to express more is,Everyone in marriage should pay more attention to the value of housework and be considerate of others’ efforts in the family, which is a necessary attitude to maintain a good marriage.

Let’s go back to the gossip at the beginning. Is it reasonable for Hye-seon Ku to ask for 30,000 won a day for housework? If we set the value of housework as 30% of GDP, it is probably the average level of East Asian countries. In 2018, the per capita GDP of South Korea is 32,000 US dollars (1 US dollar = 1,208.3 won), which is equivalent to the housework value of 31,000 won in the next day. Is this just a coincidence? Or did Hye-seon Ku show us that knowledge is power and knowledge is wealth in an extremely professional and secret way?

references

1. Liao Yuhang. Estimation of the value of housework [J]. statistics and decision, 2018(8):38-42.

2. Shen Youjia. How to measure the price of women’s housework? -the development of time allocation theory for single-family residents in Gary S. Becker [J]. Productivity Research, 2010(11):24-26.

3. Dai Qiuliang, Zhan Guohua. Analysis on the output accounting of housework [J]. statistics and decision, 2010(20):7-10.

4.Becker G. A Treatise on the Family[M].Cambridge：Harvard University Press, 1985.

Chadeau A. What Is Households’Non-Market Production Worth? [J].OECD Economics Studies, 1992，(18).

Author: Li Ting, Associate Professor, School of Social and Population Studies, Renmin University of China.　

This issue is compiled by Li Zhiqi, an undergraduate student at the School of Social and Population Studies, Renmin University of China.

The manuscript was first published in WeChat official account, the WeChat of "Serious Demography Gossip". Please indicate the source, author’s name and "from The Paper Paike Channel" for reprinting. Please contact yansurenkou8gua@163.com for reprinting and cooperation.