Deliberately Misleading, Or Misleading Deliberately?

Lunch in Lexington, KY. Near the castle!

While in the hometown, I tried to keep an eye on Nashville Is Talking this weekend, because one of our notable wingnuts, Glen Dean, is guest hosting. I like to support the guest bloggers, as I've done it a couple of times, myself, and it's mostly a thankless task... but it is fun. So, if they say anything remotely interesting, I'll try to chime in.

On a discussion about raising the minimum wage, Glen stated: "My wife cleans a house and she makes a whole lot more than the minimum wage." Of course, I was snarky, and implied that Glen might pay her more than minimum wage to clean their house, but the relevance of that to people trying to earn their income cleaning houses was unclear to me.

Glen took great umbrage that I was somehow impugning his wife or her work ethic, which I certainly was NOT -- if anything, I was poking Glen for potentially being "charitable," in perhaps paying his wife more than the market would bear (see the same discussion around noon, regarding tipping servers). Of course Ivy didn't help matters any, by chiming in asking why I was "... bringing Glen's wife into this," when I did no such fucking thing.

My observation has been that Glen's completely honest, even when being misleading -- after all, is there anyone out there making more than $5.15/hr. who hasn't cleaned a house (Andover graduates notwithstanding)? Given that, it's no surprise that he simply stops talking about it when asked to clarify his statement.

Here's an attempt to clarify my beef with what Glen said; I posted it at the end of the discussion this morning:

[commenter Lesley] Glen, your wife does not "make a living" cleaning houses. That is, she does not survive on that income alone and more than likely could not survive (in the matter to which she has become accustomed) on that income. She is merely employed as someone's housekeeper.

[JP] Well, that's unclear to me -- whether Mrs. Dean is employed as someone's housekeeper.

See, the way Glen worded his statement, it's not clear.

I could say, "I take photos, and I make more than minimum wage" -- two statements, both true, but entirely disconnected from one another in relevance. However, one could easily infer that I intended to make the reader believe I made my above-$5.15/hr. wages taking photos.

Since Glen refuses to address that, I have to assume that his wife makes her wages doing something other than cleaning houses. I could be wrong, but there's been no evidence introduced to the contrary.

See, I think Glen was trying to mislead us. Does his wife earn her primary income cleaning someone's home? It's unclear to me, but I'm guessing "no." Glen won't address that, because a sin worse than lying is admitting one is a bonehead for allowing people to think your wife makes $20/hr. cleaning house, when you know it isn't true.

Do I care what Glen's wife does to earn money? Only in the context of what Glen said about her, and its relevance to a discussion on minimum wage. End of story.

UPDATE: Glen says that indeed, his wife cleans one lady's house, and that's how she makes her wage. Good for her!
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