Newt: Child Labor Laws Are "Truly Stupid"

[BNWriter]

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/national/government-and-politics/gingrich-calls-child-labor-regulations-truly-stupid/article_d540cd6a-1488-11e1-a565-001cc4c03286.html

First, I do not think there is any D-B here. I checked by looking Newt up.

I have a few things that bother me about Newt's rant:

* He is so anti-union that he would like janitors fired and give the kids in the school jobs cleaning it (absurd);

* He shows he hates unions (Read his comments in the story....Typical GOP).

If we do not have the labor laws, don't we risk doing what other countries that don't have them (i.e. underpaying&overworking young kids....?).


And on another Newt-related subject, I would be curious to hear what my fellow SportsJournalists.com-mers think of Newt's idea for, should he be the GOP nominee, having Lincoln/Douglas-style debates with Obama, with questions from audience and *no moderator*.

Personally, I think Newt wants that form of debate because of "no moderator." Oh how he hates the media and any suggestion of a moderator after the debate last weekend.

He's an idiot. It's just a shame he has to demonstrate it so publicly at times.

 

[LongTimeListener]

It has been on two threads already.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/86647/

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/87258/

 

[Dick Whitman]

He's not an idiot. He's insecure. Either that or thinks he's so much smarter than his audience that they are incapable of understanding a nuanced point. Probably a little bit of both.

So the result is that he constantly goes way over the top when a little would have sufficed.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I am honestly starting to wonder what someone has to do to disqualify himself or herself from this dog-and-pony show. Herman Cain should send Jerry Sandusky a thank-you card. Newt Gingrich says he wants to put 9-year-olds to work and, at least so far, it barely seems to have registered with people.

The only two events that I can think of so far that have harmed a candidate are:

(1) Michele Bachmann's HPV comments, although her drop had as much to do with Perry joining the race as anything.

(2) Perry's debate gaffe.

That's it. Everyone else just seems to get stronger through each incomprehensible ****-up.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I am honestly starting to wonder what someone has to do to disqualify himself or herself from this dog-and-pony show. Herman Cain should send Jerry Sandusky a thank-you card. Newt Gingrich says he wants to put 9-year-olds to work and, at least so far, it barely seems to have registered with people.

The only two events that I can think of so far that have harmed a candidate are:

(1) Michele Bachmann's HPV comments, although her drop had as much to do with Perry joining the race as anything.

(2) Perry's debate gaffe.

That's it. Everyone else just seems to get stronger through each incomprehensible ****-up.

Newt's a malignancy upon the Earth.

He'll kill himself. Left unchecked, he'll utter a handful of looney-tune, Plutoesque stupidities, and take himself out. He can't help himself.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I think Perry's MULTIPLE debate ****ups have hurt him a lot.

I think Cain has been hurt a lot by the sexual harrassment/assault claims.

I don't think Bachmann was ever truly a frontrunner, even if the idiots who voted in the Iowa Straw Poll said otherwise...

I don't think this will hurt Newt.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I think Perry's MULTIPLE debate ****ups have hurt him a lot.

I think Cain has been hurt a lot by the sexual harrassment/assault claims.

I don't think Bachmann was ever truly a frontrunner, even if the idiots who voted in the Iowa Straw Poll said otherwise...

I don't think this will hurt Newt.

This is Simon Legree stuff, from Newty.

"Please, sir . . . I want some more."

Happy Holidays.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

He's not an idiot. He's insecure. Either that or thinks he's so much smarter than his audience that they are incapable of understanding a nuanced point. Probably a little bit of both.

So the result is that he constantly goes way over the top when a little would have sufficed.

Based on having spent a couple hours with the man once, he is definitely not insecure, and clearly believes he's way, way smarter than most.

 

[Bob Cook]

I think Perry's MULTIPLE debate ****ups have hurt him a lot.

I think Cain has been hurt a lot by the sexual harrassment/assault claims.

I don't think Bachmann was ever truly a frontrunner, even if the idiots who voted in the Iowa Straw Poll said otherwise...

I don't think this will hurt Newt.

Not this one thing. But as more people listen to him, that will give Newt's bloated ego even more of a boost, and thus increasing the likelihood he'll say something outrageous that people will notice.

Al Gore and John Kerry lost support in part because people perceived those candidates were talking down to them. Newt will have the same problem.

 

[Starman]

Domestic violence laws are truly stupid too. Those child-labor coolies will work at a pretty snappy pace if you can lay the strap across their backs every 30 seconds or so. Improved productivity!! The miracle of the marketplace!!

 

[Greenhorn]

I think Perry's MULTIPLE debate ****ups have hurt him a lot.

I think Cain has been hurt a lot by the sexual harrassment/assault claims.

I don't think Bachmann was ever truly a frontrunner, even if the idiots who voted in the Iowa Straw Poll said otherwise...

I don't think this will hurt Newt.

Not this one thing. But as more people listen to him, that will give Newt's bloated ego even more of a boost, and thus increasing the likelihood he'll say something outrageous that people will notice.

Like when Gingrich blamed the horrific actions of Susan Smith on.....Democrats.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

This is insane.

The Koch-ies are rubbing each other off, as I type this.

There's a special corner in hell for such douchbaggery.

Oh, the depravity.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I look at it this way. The better Newt does now, the quicker Perry, Cain and Bachmann get out of the race.

 

[Bob Cook]

I look at it this way. The better Newt does now, the quicker Perry, Cain and Bachmann get out of the race.

I doubt it. Cain and Perry got enough money during their bumps to keep them going for a while. Bachmann is running on Jesus fumes or something, because she seems to be running on a mission from God, money or not. And who knows how long a Newt bump can last? (Ewwww, Newt bump.)

 

[The Big Ragu]

His idea. ... of firing janitors and hiring kids to do their jobs is stupid. And I don't endorse a thing about Newt Gingrich, who is just a corrupt politician cloaked in rhetoric.

But the reality is that child labor laws in the west didn't end children working instead of going to school. The lack of economic necessity for them to work is what stopped the practice. People will choose for themselves and their kids to eat instead of starve. When that isn't the choice, they instinctually protect their children.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

For the record, I thought what he said was stupid, but based on some of the stupid things I've heard in the last few months, this barely registers...

 

[Starman]

Ah yes, the miracle of the free market, the solution to all social ills.

 

[Bob Cook]

His idea. ... of firing janitors and hiring kids to do their jobs is stupid. And I don't endorse a thing about Newt Gingrich, who is just a corrupt politician cloaked in rhetoric.

But the reality is that child labor laws in the west didn't end children working instead of going to school. The lack of economic necessity for them to work is what stopped the practice. People will choose for themselves and their kids to eat instead of starve. When that isn't the choice, they instinctually protect their children.

http://www.vahistorical.org/exhibits/hine_crusade.htm

It was the opposite. There were plenty of efforts to pass child labor laws for 30 years (often struck down by courts). But when adults became willing to take the lower-paying jobs for children during the Depression, THAT'S what effectively ended child labor. So it wasn't a lack of economic necessity for kids to work that ended child labor. It was an economic necessity for kids to get out of the way so the adults could work.

Still, your point is true that the laws didn't happen, or have widespread support, just because they were the Right Thing To Do.

 

[HC]

I'm not a political person but this Gingrich quote from "The Thanksgiving Family Forum" pissed me off:

"I think what makes us different and what makes us in some ways when we have good leadership, much more ruthless and much tougher than any other country in the world, is we don't send soldiers and sailors and Marines and airmen to war.
We send our children. We send our fathers. We send our brothers and sisters. We send our mothers, and therefore there's a preciousness to this decision, unlike any other country I know of. I think our position has been historic."

Does he think your allies are sending robots?

 

[The Big Ragu]

Bob, There were people advocating against child labor during colonial times. In the early 1800s it was early trade unions that led the charge, to protect their members' jobs. But the practice continued until it did because of economic necessities. The economic realities were that in the early days of industrialization, economically many people were faced with the choice of sending their kids to work or having trouble feeding their families.

During the great depression, things got as dire as you said. . But as I said, economic necessity is the only reason most people will send their kids to work. FDR got the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938, because he was trying to get adults jobs in an economy that had unemployment at sky high levels, not because he was trying to protect children. The act didn't practically end child labor and it didn't create jobs for adults.

It was the prosperity of post WWII America that ended the practice in this country, not people developing a conscience or government protecting kids. People will send their children to work to keep their families from starving. When that isn't the economic choice they are faced with, they naturally protect their children.