Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
A lot of interesting news stories have broken since I last posted at the Turley Blawg nearly a month ago. I’ve kept a running list of them. The story I decided to post about today is one that I placed under the heading “Asinine and Inane Ideas of the 2012 Presidential Candidates.” Now, truth be told, I had a plethora of stories from which to choose…so it wasn’t
easy. I finally selected one about the new Republican frontrunner, a man who has worn many hats—former professor, author, ethically challenged Speaker of the House, serial adulterer, historian, covert lobbyist, king of bling—the one and only Newt Gingrich!
I have often heard talking heads on television refer to Newt Gingrich as the “Ideas Man” and the “intellectual” of the Republican Party. It may be true that Newt has a lot of ideas—but I have to question whether the talking heads consider all of his ideas to be good ideas. I admit that even I was surprised when I heard Newt’s recent pronouncement that child labor laws are stupid when he spoke at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. I was truly taken aback when he suggested that school janitors should be fired and that poor kids should clean the schools that they attended.
Newt’s Poor Kids Can Clean Concept
Newt Gingrich:
“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”
“You’re going to see from me extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America.”
That’s one radical proposal for sure. And one for which the “Ideas Man” received quite a bit of criticism. Newt bowed “to concerns that janitorial work is dangerous.” He then decided he needed to clarify his proposal and provided more specifics. He said poor kids could mop floors and clean bathrooms after school. He also suggested that they could sit in a clerical office greeting people.
I’m not sure where Newt thinks school systems will find money in their strained budgets to pay pupils to work after school hours. Has he thought about the valuable time school janitors and secretaries would have to spend training the children? And wouldn’t adults at the schools have to supervise the child workers?
I wonder what the little clerical school greeters might say to visitors. “Hi, my name’s Tommy. I’m poor and I got this job because I want to earn honest money and develop good work habits. I don’t want to grow up to be a lazy lump like my parents. Who are you?”
Do you think parents would be happy to learn that the bathrooms at the schools their children attend were being cleaned and disinfected by some of their fellow classmates?
Is this the kind of radical proposal that could actually change the face of poverty in America? Does putting poor children to work cleaning bathrooms and greeting visitors at their schools sound like a good idea to you? Is Newt Gingrich really an “original or rigorous thinker?” David Boaz of the Cato Institute doesn’t think Newt merits that description “because he doesn’t drill down on ideas, integrate them into a larger philosophy or bat them around with peers.” Boaz said: “He strikes me as a guy who thinks of lots of ideas and never runs them through a sanity test before spilling them on a stage. I think he has had a tendency to just have idle thoughts occur to him as he’s reading the newspaper and then announce them without even running it by a colleague.”
According to an article in Politico, a number of conservatives think that Gingrich “is more idea impresario than idea generator, a bright and savvy politician who uses a facade of deep intellectualism effectively — but not authentically.”
Roderick Hills Jr., a constitutional law professor at New York University who’s active in the Federalist Society, said of Newt: “Nobody thinks of Gingrich as a wonky type. Nobody thinks of him as someone who has serious positions, white papers, policies on a wide array of issues coming from deep knowledge and experience. I don’t think of him that way, and I don’t know of any professor who thinks of him that way.”
The Republicans have been claiming that the Democrats are guilty of class warfare when they propose that people who earn $1 million dollars or more a year can afford to pay higher taxes. Do they think Newt is guilty of class warfare when he proposes that poor kids should mop floors and clean school bathrooms?
Newt’s Poem to Poor Kids
Go fetch a bucket
And grab a mop.
Now get to work.
Clean up that slop.
Scrub the bathrooms
From stem to stern.
Don’t be a slug.
It’s time to earn
Your living, kid.
You’re poor. Boohoo!
I have no pity
For kids like you.
SOURCES
Newt Gingrich, Pseudo-Intellectual Free-Trade Kool-Aid Drinker (Huffington Post)
Newt Gingrich: Child Labor Laws Are ‘Stupid’ (Huffington Post)
Newt Gingrich is an Idea Man (Quality of Ideas Not Guaranteed) (Huffington Post)
Is Newt Gingrich as smart as he thinks? (Politico)
Gingrich Doubles Down On Child Labor: Poor Kids Should ‘Clean The Bathroom’ (ThinkProgress)
Newt Gingrich says poor kids have no work habits, suggest janitorial work (Global Post)
Newt Gingrich’s child labor plan cleans up (The Guardian)
Great story Elaine. It is preposterous to most reasonable people to imagine that child labor laws are in danger of being repealed. Class warfare indeed.
Punish the children for their parents’ poverty – despicable.
If this is the best the GOP can do Elaine we are in trouble as a country……nation.. The thinking man….. So far his ideals have not worked out well…. Except for his pocket book… The contract on America…. Viva la pancho villa….
Thanks Elaine..
Elaine:
what is wrong with children working after school for a few hours a couple of times a week? Sweeping floors or answering phones? It is a good way to learn the value of a dollar but as you say if it is just another subsidy how much is it really worth?
After school jobs can help children learn job skills. Maybe an evil rich guy could hire a couple of kids to help around his office and spend a little time with them. If enough evil rich guys did that maybe these children would have a chance to become contributing members of society and I think that was Newt’s point.
The only way out of poverty is extremely hard work and a good economy. Many people do it, pretty much on their own [Elizabeth Warren to the contrary] but they probably had some sort of role model.
I think 12 or 13 is an acceptable age for children to start doing light work a few hours a week.
You have got ol Noot completely wrong! He does not mean YOUR kids – he means THOSE PEOPLES kids, you know those people.
And certainly we need to end the power of unions to bargain for living wages for any work that could be done cheaper. Why do you think Noot is such a big fan of illegal immigration? Since they are not as anxious to come here now that his party has demonized them so well he needs a new supply and child labor could be the key.
Its not just Noot BTW – bills have been proposed in at least 3 States by Republican officials to eliminate all child labor laws. Dickens would be so proud.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/04/9202435-gingrich-takes-control-in-iowa
Well said Frankly.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/From-the-Wires/2011/1202/Newt-Gingrich-stomps-Mitt-Romney-in-Florida-poll
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/dowd-out-of-africa-and-into-iowa.html?_r=1
If Gingrich can keep his mouth shut for about eight weeks, he will be the nominee. If he can’t, who knows what will happen. Paul could win the Iowa caucuses as his followers are the most dedicated.
great, “nigro” restroom restroom attendants at the “gingrich school for boys”
Bron,
Many school systems in this country have been cutting educational and enrichment programs and teacher and librarian positions because they are strapped for money. Where do you propose these school systems find funding to pay kids to work after hours? A student sits in a school office greeting people. What’s the purpose of that? Do you believe young children should be cleaning toilets and urine and excrement in their school’s bathrooms? This post is about poor kids working at their schools–not for some kindly gentleman of means–and differentiating between the have and have-not children. Children born into wealth like Paris Hilton never have to worry about working a day in their lives.
Elizabeth Warren rocks! I hope she gets elected senator from my state. She’d definitely be an improvement on “pretty boy” Brown.
Newt ownian economy … “we own everything” an expression of the 1% as they plunder the 99%.
Newt is one of the Agent Smiths of the Matrix.
Nal 1, December 4, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Punish the children for their parents’ poverty – despicable.
===========================
That says it all.
eLAINE:
I dont think children should work in the public school system unless there is a private grant.
Sweeping floors is a little different than cleaning toilets.
What does Paris Hilton have to do with this? She is a member of the lucky sperm club.
Also I doubt Newt was thinking only about work in public schools, his idea is applicable across a broad spectrum of industries and organizations.
Bron,
A private grant to put kids to work?! Really?
About the kids working as janitors in schools, obviously this is for the poor kids so they can be shown the value of work — not for kids of the rich, who know that the value of work depends upon their SUCCESS and not their SERVITUDE. More importantly, it is an unsafe approach.
Janitors in any establishment (hospital, federal office building, school, private building) have to know what to do to keep the premises clean and safe. Their job should not be a punishment, although obviously it can be. As I cleaned, when I ran a day-care center, I kept up a running commentary on what I was doing, how I was doing it, and why it needed to be done. I would say, for instance, “OK, this milk spilled and some of it got on the carpet. I am blotting it up with paper towels first because I want to get as much liquid out of the carpet as I can before I clean it. [Asking a kid] Do you think this is enough?” Invariably the kid says, “no!” and he or she grabs a paper towel and instructs me in how much MORE it needs. Then we proceed to cleaning it and I get two or three more helpers instructing me. Finally one of the young engineers will build an enclosure so the area can dry. One girl said to me, “When I grow up I’m going to be a cleaner.” Her parents were a lawyer and a publisher, respectively. She probably will NOT be a cleaner. But she could learn to do that if she wanted — and it would take some learning.
Gingrich is showing several things with this irresponsible suggestion:
1. People are, to him, “human resources” to be used for whatever use he thinks they should be used for, for his [and his'] benefit.
2. Education is, to him, a method whereby the 1% forms the others into useful resources: among them, freesources (such as prisoners).
3. Policy is, to him, a way to organize a society into something that he personally would enjoy and that would not significantly tax him.
4. He probably doesn’t know how to clean anything.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/thenovascotian/39308-newt-hypocrite-who-would-be-president
Bron,
This isn’t about kids working in schools to cut down on janitorial costs, this is about repeal of child labor laws. This goes back to Dickensian London and ten year old chimney sweeps. This is China and all the 3rd World countries. Hire kids to work on assembly lines for 3 buck$ an hour, why pay an adult $10? Is this really the America you want? Also please don’t hand me bullshit about how good work is for kids. Both my daughters started working part-time jobs at 16, to earn extra money. My wife and I didn’t really encourage this and we gave them good allowances to boot. There is a big difference between wanting to work and being forced to as a support for your family. When you do it when you don’t have to if the boss mistreats you, there is the option to quit. Otherwise, especially if you are a child workplace abuse becomes the norm. Is this really the America you want?
Mike,
This is the real class warfare.
I agree completely with Mike’s last comment. Well said, sir.
Ditto on that Mike….
Elaine,
That “poem of Newt” is classic.
The Nastiness of Newt
The Nation, 11/30/11
http://www.thenation.com/article/164888/nastiness-newt
Excerpt:
Even in a party where shamelessness is now considered a virtue, it’s unsettling that a man who collected $30,000 a month for an hour of counsel to Freddie Mac administrators would attack school janitors, who according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics earn a mean wage of $13.74 an hour, or $28,570 a year. In response to Gingrich, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said, “The people you want to fire and replace with kids? A lot of them are parents. That job puts a roof over kids’ heads, food on the table, and provides them with healthcare and the chance to get an education. That job is the only thing between a kid and poverty.” But Gingrich has never been bothered by the human costs of right-wing social experimentation. So why start, now that the Grand Old Party seems to be longing for a return to the Gilded Age? Gingrich is betting there’s no such thing as going too far to the right in this race. He may be right; just days after he championed child labor, he secured the endorsement of New Hampshire’s Union Leader, a rigid-right newspaper determined to stop Romney.
Mike:
I dont think you are going to have children working in factories at 10,12,13,14,15,16 years of age.
If that is the impetus behind the law, then I would be against it. But I see nothing wrong with children working at 12 or 13 washing dishes or making pizzas or sweeping floors or scooping ice cream a few hours a day a couple of days a week. If they want to and if their parents let them.
Isnt that the bottom line? If they want to and if their parents let them?
What are you really worried about? There is still a social safety net so the poor will not be prayed upon by unscrupulous business owners.
rafflaw:
“A private grant to put kids to work?! Really?”
what is wrong with that? That way you give the janitors a little help and dont put them out of a job plus the kids do something positive for the community and the evil old rich guy feels good about his wasted life chasing filthy lucre.
Win win all around.
Bron,
I think not in your lifetime….unless you are 18 or 19 now….but in all practicality….look at the Mexican Child Labor Laws…..Educate yourself…
Illegal child labor in Mexico puts food on tables of Americans
300,000 kids toil in fields illegally, U.N. says
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/05/09/20080509childlabor0509.html
Just don’t confuse yourself with the facts….It is what you consume….btw…if I recall….we do have something called NAFTA that is supposed to prohibit this type of activities…oh…well…a profit is to be made….even if on the backs of children…
Do you know in some Asian counties today…if a parent dies owing money…then the children can be forced to work and pay that money back…as you sit with your disability pension….think about that….
Where the hell are you going to get a grant to put kids to work? There isn’t enough money around for good ideas, yet alone this loser. It was said earlier that this is an attack on child labor laws, period!
Ok, David Boaz’s excerpted comments notwithstanding, the core issue here is one of choice. Both forcing children to work or prohibiting them from working when they want to, is bad.
If children, for the sake of argument 14 yo and up, WANT to greet people, or work as maintenance help, then why shouldn’t they be permitted?
I agree with Boaz, that Gingrich just throws these maverick ideas out there on stage, w/o having a good philosophical infrastructure to support them.
What he proposes is essentially a libertarian idea, but since he is not a libertarian, nor subscribes to any significant interdependent libertarian set of ideas, his proposal is most likely incomplete and by implication shocking to the conscience.
Good story, nice poem.. but I think you missed a golden opportunity..
Newt’s Poem for Rich Kids
You don’t have to work, you’re rich
the Parents of the poor kids
will clean the pi$$ stains
you leave upon the walls.
and pickup the trash
you drop along the halls.
Yea, it doesn’t rhyme.. & that’s why you shouldn’t leave this job to me!
>so the poor will not be prayed (sic) upon by unscrupulous business owners.
I loves Freudian slips.. ‘prayed’ upon, oh, those religious folks are _so_ nice.. vs ‘Preyed’ upon.. which is what they are _actually_ doing..
enjoy!
The republican base has returned to the ultimate uncaring candidate but at least he debates well unlike Perry. The good news unless you are one of the posters that truly hates Obama is that he will probably lose. The bad news is that if Europe fails to resolve its crisis and a worldwide depression results we will all be stuck with him.
bobby:
you know how those evangelicals are.
rafflaw:
allowing a kid to work who wants is not the same as letting 10 year olds work on the factory floor.
Before I was 16 I had to have my mother sign a card saying I could work.
AY:
Mexico doesnt have real good economy, arent they more on the centralized control side of the line?
By the way, I dont have a disability pension. But how is that trust fund working for you?
Newt Gingrich and Child Labor
http://thenevadaview.com/2912/newt-gingrich-and-child-labor/
Excerpt:
Gingrich seeks to return us to the Victorian era which was notorious for employing young children in factories and mines and as chimney sweeps. I suppose it would teach kids how to work—schooling is cast to the back burner. It might even help Gingrich earn the “job creator” moniker.
Unionized janitors are just too expensive. Kids could be used to work at a far lesser hourly wage. Probably could hire 3-4 kids at the cost of a single unionized adult janitor. That would increase jobs wouldn’t it?
It would be a start. Since Gingrich specified these kids are entrapped in the “poorest neighborhoods,” he must be excluding the kids from working that live in privileged neighborhoods. Schools in privileged neighborhoods apparently don’t employ unionized janitors. No point in firing janitors that aren’t unionized nor worry about rich kids needing to learn how to work.
Just think, the Gingrich plan could re-institute a movement back to the days when kids worked in cotton-mills, coal mines, sweatshops or as domestic servants. It might even speed up the current trend of dividing the American population into two groups—those that have and those that don’t. I read in a local newspaper last week that Nye County’s population has 18.7% below the federal poverty level according to the 2010 Census. That must be welcome news to the Nye County School District—plenty of kids to choose from to replace their unionized janitors.
All one has to do is elect Newt Gingrich President of the United States and we’re on our way to toward erasing poverty—saved by our kids. Don’t laugh at that—Gingrich is leading the GOP’s Presidential candidates so he must have a lot of support in the Republican Party—anything to beat President Obama in 2012.
Since the military draft has been replaced with a volunteer system, those underprivileged kids can always opt to join up when their janitorial jobs peter out. The privileged class no longer has to worry that their kids will get drafted.
Think that the idea of using child labor is beyond achievement. Think again. In 1916, the National Child Labor Committee and the National Consumers League successfully pressured the US Congress to pass the Keating-Owen Act, the first federal child labor law. However, the US Supreme Court struck down the law two years later in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), declaring that the law violated a child’s right to contract his or her own labor. In 1924, Congress attempted to pass a constitutional amendment that would authorize a national child labor law. This measure was blocked, and the bill was eventually dropped.
It took the Great Depression to end child labor nationwide; adults had become so desperate for jobs that they would work for the same wage as children. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which, among other things, placed limits on many forms of child labor.
Elaine, looks like ol’ Newt, Bron and other like minded folks are ready to charge headlong into 1929, ready or not.
OS,
Back to the Future.
OS:
I dont know about Newt but Bush and his step son Obama have already done that.
First TARP and then Stimulus and now the EU loan, it is not 1929 all over again, more like around 1933-34.
I hope you enjoy the fruits of centralized planning. The pickens on that tree are always slim and unsuitable for consumption.
Bron,
The stimulus has helped the economy and is still helping, but I don’t want to confuse you with facts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/opinion/blow-newts-war-on-poor-children.html
raff, I agree about the stimulus. Bron is correct in that the TARP was a miserable idea. The money would have been far better spent if it had gone to the stimulus. From all I have read by people that know more about economics than I, the consensus is that the stimulus was too little and almost too late. It could have used the ill-spent TARP money.
I want to know why we are spending billions to build roads in Afghanistan when we have bridges here that fall into the Mississippi river.
Good work, Elaine. Here’s a little glimpse into the mind of the Gang of Six on the issue of their longed for theocracy. Start about 38:00:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY8Zw5NzUXQ
Scary video Mespo. These candidates just keep trying to out crazy each other and they keep pandering to the religious right.
When I first read this story last week I thought, this is something Elaine might choose to address.
The point I found most telling in the whole ridiculous, “who can we abuse now for profit” Republican mind set was the fact that most of these poor kids are children of the working poor. Their parents work, they just don’t earn a livable wage …even with 2 jobs.
Elaine … here’s a story you might have read … it is one I find very disturbing … http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/opinion/virtually-educated.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general
Excerpt from SwM’s link to the NYTimes article illustrates the point that many of these little ones are children of the working poor:
“Furthermore, according to an analysis of census data by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College, most poor children live in a household where at least one parent is employed. And even among children who live in extreme poverty — defined here as a household with income less than 50 percent of the poverty level — a third have at least one working parent. And even among extremely poor children who live in extremely poor areas — those in which 30 percent or more of the population is poor — nearly a third live with at least one working parent.”
Elaine et al, (way off topic)
I posted this on the court jest thread but am putting it here too … It’s a great place to make a video for your child, grandchild etc
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/g3v3fbuFg-c8IRE9FuD-Vbg
Yikes, Newt Gingrich is truly horrible! It says a lot about the repugs when they point to this toad with pride as their “ideas man!”
Back to the future indeed, 1994 Newt suggested: “As part of a proposal to overhaul welfare, Mr. Gingrich would allow states to end payments to unmarried women under 21, and has said states could use the money to run orphanages.”
http://www.nytimes.com./1994/12/01/us/first-lady-assails-orphanage-plan.html
“Here was Gingrich, who sees welfare as a problem, proposing as an alternative the very institution that inspired welfare’s creation.”
The above quote was from Dale Keiger’s article “The Rise and Demise of the American Orphanage” published in the Johns Hopkins Magazine, April 1996 issue. It is a good read and still available on the intertubes but i am experiencing link failure.
CEJ,
Newt is a real piece of work. If he is an idea man, I am Einstein.
How about work that actually benefits kids and their families? Community gardens for a start. They would learn the importance of paying attention to what needed done, and reap the reward of fresh veggies. Maybe having their own ‘farmers market’ where they would get extra cash. I would like to see some of that cash go into the bank for the next year’s planting.
Some times “SILENCE” is the best way to express your feelings of RAGE.
Herman Cain is going to endorse Newt today.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-11-17/news/1994321030_1_children-in-orphanages-mothers-women-and-children Gingrich was wanting to dismantle Johnson’s great society in 1994. He was talking about orphanages back then.
How about dismantling the military industrial complex and give-aways to big oil?
rafflaw:
please, I am all ears. The economy, if it is getting better, which I doubt, is getting better because people have been doing without for almost 4 years and things are starting to wear out. And households have been paying down personal debt. Also business is making the people who are working to do more at the same or less pay.
Stimulus = more productivity for less pay and fewer people employed. Wow and I thought you were a friend of labor?
Now maybe you are right but the amount of money which has been pumped into the economy could lead to very high inflation if the economy heats up. Gold is up almost 3 times since 2006 when it was selling for around $600 it is now over $1,700 per oz. and that sirloin steak I used to pay $2.99 a pund for is now selling for between $5 and $6/pound.
OS:
“I want to know why we are spending billions to build roads in Afghanistan when we have bridges here that fall into the Mississippi river.”
Because Bush and Obama along with most members of congress are idiots.
raff,
That is the infrastructure they wish to build….come now…how can you have that without gifts and grafts….
On the other side…..
Have you noticed how much Newt looks like Mr. Potter in “It a Wonderful Life”…..as opposed to “Captain Courageous”….
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-05/rich-poor-divide-is-widening-oecd-says.html Making an investment in children and “upskilling the worforce” is the alternative that is preferable to Newt’s idea.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/in-gingrich-romney-now-sees-a-grave-threat/?ref=todayspaper
Revenge is sweet,Newt will have “splainin” to do.
Great post, Elaine. Mr. Gingrich’s proposal will go nowhere, and he knows it. However, the significance lies in what it says about attitudes toward the poor in this country. He has received loud applause when tossing out this line before Republican audiences, who increasingly have come to regard poverty as a self-inflicted wound. Republicans used to rely primarily on appeals to racial prejudice to solicit votes. The 2012 election campaign will see a large increase in ads denigrating the poor and the unemployed.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/newt-and-trump-announce-will-turn-poor-children-into-apprentices.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
Bron,
I will believe the CBO rather than your version of facts.
rafflaw:
gold isnt selling for over 1700/oz.?
Bron,
The CBO numbers don’t lie.
rafflaw:
how do you know they calculate them correctly?
They are non-partisan and the Right only agrees with them when it benefits them. We are talking adding up the past 2 years and projecting the rest of 2011. You don’t want to agree with them because you want the economy to tank.
I know where we can get the money! Mexican drug cartels!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/world/americas/us-drug-agents-launder-profits-of-mexican-cartels.html?_r=3
And since we’re competing with China on a global marketplace, why not make all rules and regulations even with them?(j/k) Either that, or impose some serious import taxes on all their crap. It’s not like their facilities are under the extreme regulations like ours, and it’s all the same planet so…
If we’re really against child labor laws, shouldn’t our country boycott those which do employ them(children)? Shouldn’t it also be a crime to do business with known labor-law-breaking countries? Otherwise it seems like a case of the world criminals will do what they want, while the good law abiding persons become ever more hampered with restrictions. We just are hypocrites if we say you can’t produce that product here with those methods- but China can do it just fine so buy it from them.
Speaking about bridges falling into rivers- how crazy is it that China is building our new San Francisco bridge! This one really strikes me as ridiculous. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8602786/New-San-Francisco-bridge-built-in-China-to-be-shipped-to-US.html
Couldn’t we just employ Americans, getting paid here, paying taxes here, for an American product we’re all proud of?
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/newts-nostalgia-and-amnesia/?ref=opinion Newt’s new nostalgic ad
Question: Who is the bigger egomaniac?
Newt and Trump Talk ‘Apprenti’ Program For 10 Poor Kids
U.S. Child Labor, Dorsey Dixon, Babies In The Mill, Newport
Way back in the late 70′s and early 80′s when discussions came up about the emerging global business model there was never a satisfactory answer to the question of how the US could insure that our workers wouldn’t be put in the position of competing with foreign labor making pennies a day and thus destroy our economy. There just never seemed to be a plan for insuring that other (foreign) boats would rise with the tide and our own not be swamped and sink to the bottom.
I see the talk about destroying the child labor laws as a method of maintaining competition for some domestic labor that needs to be performed and that can’t be filled with conventional workers. Children and prison labor will fill that bill. As well, using child labor could reinvigorate the ‘assembly’ aspect of of the ‘manufacturing and assembly’ equation. Business is already looking for even cheaper alternatives to China. If we can actually get basic assembly-type work at a cheap enough labor cost using kids and/or prisoners we might see some business’ come back to the US, those spiffy Apple mice might one day carry a “Made In America” label. Sounds like a plan to me. :-/
***
“Alabama Agriculture Department Advances Plan To Replace Immigrant Workers With Prisoners”
“Farmers say crops are rotting in the field and they are in danger of losing their farms by next season. …
To stave off the disastrous collapse of state agriculture, Alabama officials are seriously considering replacing immigrant workers with prison laborers who they could perhaps pay even less than immigrants. …
Replacing skilled workers with virtually free (and sometimes actually free) prison laborers has become a trend in Republican-led states. Under Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) anti-collective bargaining law, at least one Wisconsin county replaced some union workers with prison labor. And Georgia is considering replacing firefighters with prisoners to save money.”
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/12/06/382852/alabama-agriculture-department-promoting-plan-to-replace-immigrants-with-prisoners-to-farmers/
***
“China Now Has Third Highest Labor Costs in Emerging Asia”
“According to figures released by China customs, the country’s export manufacturing trade reached US$1.58 trillion in 2010. It is to be expected that a significant percentage of this will relocate elsewhere purely to maintain economic viability for export manufacturers. …”
http://wowhrc.com/Article/Detail/53
Elaine,
I’ve been catching up this evening on the posts over the weekend that I missed and I just wanted to compliment you on another well written, thoughtful and timely article. Bravissimo, bella signora.
Gene H.,
I’ve begun my “nanny granny” duties–so I’m living with my daughter and son-in-law half of the week. I don’t have as much time now to write comments or blog posts. That said, I love spending time with my granddaughter. She is a joy to be with. She’s not fussy at all–and always wakes up smiling.
P.S. I’ve been reading Julia the board and bath books that I got for her.
Gene,
One more thing: When Julia is old enough, I’m going to teach her how to mop floors–then I’ll tutor her in basic bathroom cleaning. After all, she’ll want honestly earned cash that she can buy candy and ice cream with.
Gene:
shouldnt that be Bravissima?
I wish I could find the links that would guide readers to the articles and/or cases that would illustrate this, but time has passed (this was late 80s early 90s) and I cannot locate them. Anyway, a judge in Southern Maryland (Judge Bowen, cannot remember his first name) would sentence impoverished defendants (thus, at the mercy of the public defenders) brought into the court by the sheriff and police in the late spring and through the summer as follows:
“Do you know how to pick tobacco, ever picked tobacco?”
If the answer was yes, they got six months, and they would be jailed adn then driven out on a truck each morning by the sheriff’s folks to Judge Bowen’s farm, where they would pick tobacco, every day for six months, then get freed. If the answer was no, they’d get 30 days and probation so they could be brought back in on a probation violation if there really was a shortage of skilled workers that year.
That’s where we’re heading, we’re heading to Judge Bowen’s farm.
Spread the word: “Newt Gingrich is a lousy human being.”
“Newt Gingrich wants to wage political war on poor children…Any Republican who supports Newt Gingrich cannot claim to support families, family values,or any recognizable form of morality.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/11/1044071/-Newt-Gingrich-is-lousy-human-being
CEJ,
Newt is a disgusting human being.
raff,
I submit that Newt would be a disgusting actual newt, much less a human being.
CEJ, Rafflaw, & Gene,
Newt a lousy and disgusting human being? He only cheated on his wife because he’s a patriot and loves his country so much. And, besides, kids who have the misfortune to be born into poor families should learn early how to earn a few bucks by cleaning up after their more fortunate peers.
Gene,
That is an insult to newts everywhere.
raff,
You are correct and I must humbly and completely apologize to all newts and greater and lesser amphibians everywhere. Mea culpa.
While working in a psychiatric facility, someone once told me, “The eye of the newt is not reflected in the moon.”
So there it is in a nutshell. Literally.
Otteray,
I’d say the eye of the Newt has a tendency to wander–if you know what I mean.
“You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5
************************
Newt Gingrich exemplifies the soullessness of materialism. He’s too dumb to realize he’s in a box of his own purchase and construction. But he’s on the downward slope of life. On that day when he lays dying, if the fear of his own mortality has awakened any kind of sensibility or sense of connection to humanity in Gingrich, he’ll know just how empty and harmful his life was and he’ll feel regret for how shabbily he treated his fellow travelers. Knowing him, he’ll likely think that he was a winner in the game of life. His failure to recognize that being known for the good you did for others expecting nothing in return far outweighs the services rendered to self or for profit will be complete. Nothing will have been learned. A life will be over and nothing of true value will have been lost other than potential wasted. Potential every human child has. The potential to make the world better for everyone, not just yourself. Or you could shop at Tiffany’s and send children off to work instead of being allowed and encouraged to be children.
Elaine,
if Newt was really a Patriot, he would admit that he is a buffoon and walk away and work on paying his Tiffany bill.
rafflaw,
Not pay his Tiffany’s bill? Surely you jest! He’s got to keep Callista happy.
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/romney-presses-ann-coulter-into-surrogate-duty-audio.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/gop-debate-audience-cheers-child-labor
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/11/9365498-gingrich-opens-up-big-leads-in-south-carolina-and-florida
TPM2012
NBC/WSJ: Gingrich At 40% With GOP, But Would Be Crushed By Obama
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/nbcwsj-gingrich-hits-40-percent-among-gop-down-against-obama-by-11.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
Excerpt:
In the most pronounced contrast between former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s position within the Republican primary contest and his standing in a matchup against President Obama, Gingrich has taken a commanding lead in a new national poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. Newt gets 40 percent of the GOP vote nationally, the highest total for any candidate in the past few months. He’s currently 17 points above his main competitor, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney.
But the data also shows that Gingrich is a much weaker candidate against President Obama nationally. While Romney is only bested by the President by two points within the poll, Gingrich is crushed 51 – 40, showing the expansive disconnect between the GOP voters’ desire to have a non-Romney candidate and the chances that candidate has in the general election.
“Why the difference between Gingrich and Romney? Look no further than their favorability ratings,” MSNBC wrote in their analysis of the poll. “Gingrich enjoys strong numbers among Republicans (46 percent positive vs. 21 percent negative), conservatives (42 percent positive vs. 23 percent negative) and Tea Party supporters (54 percent positive vs. 16 percent negative). In fact, they are higher than Romney’s numbers among these same three key Republican groups.”
But that’s as far as the Gingrich appeal goes, according to the data. “Gingrich struggles with other important voting blocs — like women (20 percent positive vs. 38 percent negative), independents (16 percent positive vs. 40 percent negative) and suburban residents (25 percent positive vs. 41 percent negative),” MSNBC continued. “By comparison, Romney fares better among women (22 percent positive vs. 31 percent negative), independents (21 percent positive vs. 29 percent negative) and suburban dwellers (29 percent positive vs. 30 percent negative).”
Gingrich Suggests Illegally Firing Federal Employees Over Liberal Views
1/14/12
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/gingrich-suggests-illegally-firing-federal-employees-over-liberal-views.php?ref=fpa
Expert:
Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested at a Fox News forum hosted by Mike Huckabee in South Carolina on Saturday that it would be a good idea to fire federal employees for being too liberal. Federal law, on the other hand, says Gingrich’s plan would be illegal.
“I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal employees delivering the right services in a highly efficient way and then wants to get rid of those folks who are in fact wasteful, or those folks who are ideologically so far to the left, or those people who want to frankly dictate to the rest of us,” Gingrich said in response to a question from a federal employee at the forum.
Gingrich Wants Kids To Work As Janitors, But Refused To Work Himself
By Alex Seitz-Wald on Jan 30, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/01/30/414199/gingrich-refused-work-student/
Newt Gingrich has made headlines and raised eyebrows on the campaign trail for proposing to make poor children work as janitors in their school, saying it would help them understand the value of work and money.
But apparently, even on child janitorial work, Gingrich is employing a double standard. As Karen Tumulty notes, in a 1995 Vanity Fair profile, Gingrich seemed to refuse to get a job as a student. From the profile:
Newt, who avoided Vietnam with student and marriage deferments, resisted taking a job. During his college years, Newt called up his father and stepmother to ask for financial help. His stepmother, Marcella McPherson, can still hear his exact words: “I do not want to go to work. I want all my time for my studies…Bob Gingrich told me he will not help me one bit. So I wondered, would you people help me?” Big Newt began sending him monthly checks.
Dolores Adamson, Gingrich’s district administrator from 1978 to 1983, remembers, “Jackie [Gingrich's first wife] put him all the way through school. All the way through the P.h.D…He didn’t work.” Adds Adamson, “Personal funds have never meant anything to him. He’s worse than a six-year-old trying to keep his bank balance…Jackie did that.”