Stupid Is As Stupid Does

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Newt Gingrich believes that responsible government would open the doors for child labor.  Child labor laws, he says, are “truly stupid.” Yes, that’s right, poor children could be employed by their local schools to provide janitorial assistance.  According to Gingrich, this would help children in failing schools and poor neighborhoods to develop a sense of community and pride in their work while earning a small income as well.

It took the Great Depression to end child labor nationwide as adults became so desperate for jobs they were willing to accept positions that child had traditionally held.  Here we are nearly 100 years later and in one of the worst economic down turns since the Great Depression, and Newt wants to turn the clock back.  What would this do to our nation’s unemployment? Of course, children working as custodians in their neighborhood schools may not sound too egregious, but this would only be the beginning.  Our past shows that many would begin taking unfair advantage of a new child workforce. 

So, another Republican rising star candidate speaks off the cuff and shows America that the goal of Conservatives isn’t to move our country forward, but to take us back.  Not just back to old fashioned values, or back to a better more prosperous time, but backwards.  Backwards in the way we treat children, the way we treat the disadvantaged, and the way we treat people in general. That, I believe, is truly stupid. How responsible would this type of government really be?