Enriching Household Travel Survey Data: Fill & Download for Free

I really like Thomas' article and found myself nodding throughout. The reality is that male and female gender roles are strongly reinforced throughout our lives and it's exceedingly difficult to counter them. Thus, the problem of unequal distribution of labor in the home has remained stable, according to this article in Bloomberg Business. It cites recent data:"The Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) annual Time Use Survey reveals that the percentage of men and women who are involved in household activities, defined as housework, cooking, cleaning up after cooking, and generally taking care of the household, has barely moved since 2003, when the bureau began tracking Americans' day-to-day activities. Eleven years ago, 63 percent of men reported doing some household activity, while 84 percent of women did. In 2014, the numbers were almost the same, according to the BLS: 65 percent for men and 83 percent for women. Of those men and women who engaged in household duties at all, women spent about 2.57 hours on them each day in 2014, a decrease of 9 minutes over 11 years. Over the same period, men's contributions have remained intransigent: In 2003 they spent 2.1 hours a day on housework, while in 2014 it was 2.11 hours. (On a positive note, more men seem to be into cooking.)"Despite this, work at home doesn't have to be assigned by gender role, just as work out of the home is no longer considered men only. So yes, I agree with Rachael Schall Thomas that men need to lean in at home - how that gets realized will likely vary with each couple and might not always involve women leaning out. To her point, however, many women do have very high demands on and have difficulty letting go of how household and childcare tasks get done. But that's not necessarily every woman's issue. I also agree that approaching your relationship in general and share of the load as a work in progress (growth mindset) is constructive and enriching for both partners.In my own relationship, my husband and I have been able to change the distribution of labor the longer we're together. We juggle two travel schedules and two careers. I've definitely had to lean out on the perfectionism and letting go - he's been able to develop his own style that I respect as much as he respects mine. When I travel, he has 100% responsibility: takes care of the children, including dinner, baths, homework, school events and dropoff/pickups and deals with all household stuff. Our children appreciate the fun things about when Daddy is in charge. He does all household laundry (and yes, I despise laundry and I'm terrible at it). We make all major decisions together. It doesn't work perfectly all the time, but we keep practicing. Because our culture engrains gender-based behaviors, it does take constant vigilance to be more open and conscious, while resisting falling into the "she does-he does" trap.Thanks for the a2a, Julie - really enjoyed the article! :-)

I recently ran across this masterpiece of analysis regarding the economic consequences of Santa Claus online, and commend it to your attention.Dear Mr. PresidentWe applaud your valiant efforts to protect the American economy from the pernicious effects of cheap imports, but we fear you have overlooked one of the worst culprits.Readily available goods for the consumer at reasonably low prices have been shown time and again to be toxic to domestic producers, who are the backbone of any advanced society. We urge you to expand your scope and protect us from someone your predecessors have neglected to stop: Santa Claus.Every year on December 24, we struggle to fall asleep, anxious over the arrival of the villain known as Father Christmas. Santa’s crimes are not breaking and entering or stealing foodstuffs. No, Santa is guilty of the much more serious crime of destroying American jobs. Products imported from abroad and consumed domestically make Americans worse off. Every "gift" from Santa represents a reduction in measured American welfare; this is one of the fundamental assertions of national income accounting when calculating gross domestic product. In fact, the North Pole is worse than other countries, for the North Pole does not receive any goods produced for export from the United States. Thus, the US trade deficit with the North Pole is entirely one-sided.American jobs lost due to SantaMr. President, using the methodology your own Council of Economic Advisors employed in evaluating the effect of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, where the volume of dollars spent by government equated jobs created or saved, we can estimate the employment impact the North Pole deficit has.A recent Gallup poll reports that 77 percent of Americans identify as some sort of Christian and are therefore eligible to receive presents from Santa for good behavior. Crime-rate data published in the National Crime Victimization Survey, which gives a sense of the prevalence of naughty behavior, indicates that in 2013, there were 2,905 property crimes reported for every 100,000 people. Unreported crimes, however, are not reflected in these data, and Santa, of course, knows if you’ve been bad or good. As a means of attempting to capture this unreported bad behavior, assume that 90 percent of crimes go unreported, or that actual bad behavior is 10 times as common as the data suggest. This means that there are approximately 68,895,000 people who have been “good” for the year and are thus eligible for Christmas gifts.Economist Joel Waldfogel’s groundbreaking analysis estimates that the average person receives $462 worth of Christmas gifts each year (in 1992 dollars), meaning that Santa takes away from us a potential $53 billion (2013 dollars) worth of economic activity. This is enough economic activity to employ another 1,193,000 full-time workers at the median household salary of $44,389. With the economy recently experiencing one of the worst downturns since the Great Depression, these jobs have never been more crucial to a nation’s recovery. But Santa’s economic terrorism does not stop there.Santa as an anti-competitive monsterRecognizing the serious problems with monopolies, the US government passed a trilogy of bills (the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 and the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act in 1914) as a sort of last resort to counter the oppressive behavior of corporations, which tended to grow to an unreasonable size. History is rife with examples, from John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil to Bill Gates and Microsoft, where the government successfully stepped in and corrected obvious market failures and improved the lives of all citizens.“How does this apply to jolly ol’ Saint Nick?” you ask. His company has successfully integrated both vertically (Santa’s elves do everything in house, from production to distribution) and horizontally (while Santa is best known for making toys, he has expanded his empire into tablets, personal computers, and even automobiles, as recent car commercials attest). What’s more, he is also likely to be the single biggest violator of intellectual property rights in all of human history. Santa has an unfair advantage compared to other businesses, which must purchase their materials and shipping services from other companies.This unfair business advantage has forced companies in the United States to kick off the holiday shopping season the day after Thanksgiving with a ritual known as “Black Friday.” In an attempt to capture what little of the market they can before Santa and his band of thieves dump toys, electronics, and other consumer goods on the world economy, some stores advertise sales as great as 50 percent off suggested retail price. This business practice is clearly unsustainable.Illegal labor practicesSanta has managed to grow his empire through perhaps the most nefarious of means: child and slave labor. According to the critically acclaimed 1994 documentary The Santa Clause, starring Tim Allen, Santa has been using child elf labor since the beginning of his operation. Will Farrell’s 2003 documentary, Elf, confirms that once a worker becomes a part of Santa's conglomerate, he or she is bound there for life, as we see when Santa personally comes to New York City to collect the rogue elf, Buddy.Further, the working conditions of Claus’s cadre of elf labor are unknown. We do, however, know from NASA and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s geothermal imaging of the North Pole that no significant thermal activity exists. This means that elves lack basic necessities like lighting and heat; it also means that their work must be done by hand. Forced to endure six months of night, the elves’ working conditions fail every reasonable standard set by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The United States has historically led the charge of correcting these practices elsewhere, which has had the demonstrable effect of improving people’s lives worldwide. Yet, Mr. President, you and Congress refuse to act in this situation, leaving elves perpetually impoverished.Bypassing border controlSanta’s ability to penetrate the woefully unmonitored Canadian border highlights the potential threat of other undocumented immigrants’ entry. The US Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security, sharing responsibility with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has proven incapable of securing entry into the country and collecting the duties levied by law on all imported goods. Despite the tracking of Santa’s whereabouts each year by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), nothing has been done to protect our borders from this scoundrel. We must agree, though, that attempting to capture Santa may be a moot point, as he has been estimated to travel in excess of 650 miles per second, which no current military technology can keep up with.RecommendationsThe fact of the matter, Mr. President, is that all foreign producers have a degree of Santa in them from a domestic perspective. Foreign producers sell us goods and services, and while they do not do so at zero price like Santa, they still charge a lower price that our domestic counterparts are either unwilling or unable to match. Unlike Santa Claus, however, these foreign producers send us their "gifts of good cheer" 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. What’s more, they do not restrict their gift giving to any particular religious group, but instead offer their gifts to all the boys and girls regardless of religious affiliation.We therefore urge you to be logically consistent: either recognize every foreign producer that sends exports to the United States as if they were like Santa Claus, celebrating their efforts at enriching our lives, or recognize that Santa is simply another foreign producer, and condemn his activity as destroying American jobs.Please Protect Us from Santa ClausOne hopes Frederic Bastiat would be pleased with the imitative flattery.

Outside of credit and fraud protection products, Experian also collects massive amounts of consumer data used for marketing purposes. The credit and fraud protection products are subject to FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) guidelines and regulations, which includes allowing a consumer to change information that is incorrect, and also the ability to request a data report about oneself.The marketing products are much less regulated than FCRA-subject products and Experian does not offer any information to a consumer about what data exists in a marketing profile. This data can come from myriad sources, and because consumers don't know what is in their marketing profiles, it is difficult to nail down exactly where all the data comes from. One known significant source is merchants that contribute purchase information. Loyalty cards is another source of transactional data that is mined by the Experians of the world. Surveys is another source of behavioral information. Most of the data brokers (Acxiom, Datalogix, Epsilon) are in bed with Experian and each other, so there tends to be quite a bit of data enrichment and down-streaming in an effort to get a most accurate profile of someone.Here is a profile that is taken straight from Experian's website. It should give you a gauge of the detailed data they have about consumers:OverviewFinancially conservative, dual-working, middle-aged couples and families in a variety of small satellite cities. Most likely to be found along both coasts in places such as Virginia Beach, VA; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; and Portland, OR.0.74 percent of U.S. householdsDemographicsInhabit a prosperous world, settled into established homes built around 1975Are educated - split evenly between college grads and those who completed some collegeAre well-paid, with white-collar jobs (retail, real estate, education and public administration)Are baby boomers, with above-average numbers of both whites and AsiansNeed two wage earners to meet the needs of their upscale lifestylesLifestylesLead flourishing lifestyles and are mature, financially conservative and financially secureLike to relax at home but enjoy leisurely and outdoor activitiesHave an inclination for camping, backpacking, bicycling, golf and tennisEnjoy visiting museums and attending concerts and dance performancesPrefer to travel abroad for vacationsStock up on fat-free products, sparkling water and fresh fishLike to be the first on the block to buy new tech gadgets at stores like Best BuyAre more likely to go to smaller specialty retailers for the designer fashions they preferSave their money for college and retirements plansInvest in a variety of stocks, corporate bonds and mutual fundsMediaAre eclectic media consumers of newspapers, television, radio and the InternetWatch comedy, sports and arts programs on channels like ESPN, HBO, Showtime and BravoRegularly watch "Scrubs," "Will & Grace" and "Seinfeld" - no matter if they are rerunsHave wide intellectual interests - reading about science, travel and entertainment in the paperLike to go online to keep up with the latest trends in fashion and technologySurf newspaper and shopping Web sites and listen to online contemporary radio stations