I explore the consequences of making the RR Lyrae and clump giant distance scales consistent in the solar neighborhood , Galactic bulge and Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC ) .
I employ two major assumptions : 1 ) that the absolute magnitude - metallicity , M _ { V } ( RR ) – [ Fe/H ] , relation for RR Lyrae stars is universal , and 2 ) that absolute I -magnitudes of clump giants , M _ { I } ( RC ) , in Baade ’ s Window are known ( e.g. , can be inferred from the local Hipparcos-based calibration or theoretical modeling ) .
A comparison between the solar neighborhood and Baade ’ s Window sets M _ { V } ( RR ) at [ Fe/H ] = -1.6 in the range ( 0.59 \pm 0.05 , 0.70 \pm 0.05 ) , somewhat brighter than the statistical parallax solution .
More luminous RR Lyrae stars imply younger ages of globular cluster , which would be in better agreement with the conclusions from the currently favored stellar evolution and cosmological models .
A comparison between Baade ’ s Window and the LMC sets the M _ { I } ^ { LMC } ( RC ) in the range ( -0.33 \pm 0.09 , -0.53 \pm 0.09 ) .
The distance modulus to the LMC is \mu ^ { LMC } \in ( 18.24 \pm 0.08 , 18.44 \pm 0.07 ) .
Unlike M _ { I } ^ { LMC } ( RC ) , this range in \mu ^ { LMC } does not depend on the adopted value of the dereddened LMC clump magnitude , I _ { 0 } ^ { LMC } ( RC ) .
I argue that the currently available information is insufficient to select the correct distance scale with high confidence .

Subject Headings : distance scale — dust , extinction — Galaxy : center — Magellanic Clouds — stars : horizontal-branch — stars : variables : RR Lyrae