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ORIGINAL: BanthaSamantha

For one, Gingrich's position is built upon particularly invidious stereotypes.

Secondly, his proposal here is particularly invasive and departs drastically from mainstream conservative thought. He's basically saying that the parents of poor children are bad parents, and that the government should step in to make policies that teach these kids what a good parent would have taught them. In other words: if parents aren't going to teach their kids to be hard workers, the government will do it.

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ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet

According to Newt, child labor laws are stupid.  Furthermore, it doesn't matter, because poor kids don't work unless it is illegal:

DES MOINES, Iowa - After saying recently that child labor laws are "truly stupid," Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Thursday told an Iowa audience that children in poor neighborhoods have "no habits of working" nor getting paid for their endeavors "unless it's illegal."

Well, of course. The child labor laws prevent any child from earning money unless it is illegal.

"Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works," the former House speaker said at a campaign event at the Nationwide Insurance offices. "So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,' unless it's illegal."

What children that age are supposed to be doing with their time is going to school. Unless they aren't doing THAT, they do have a habit of showing up on Monday, a habit of staying all day, and a habit of doing things they don't want to. It's just that they aren't getting paid for it. Kids "job" is school. If they're unmotivated, THAT'S where the focus should be- keeping them motivated at school. That's how kids are going to break the cycle of poverty, not by getting a job.

Gingrich lately has been unspooling an urban policy, beginning with his comments at Harvard University last month when he discussed child labor laws. "It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods," Gingrich said then, "entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid." Children in poor neighborhoods, he said, should be allowed to serve as janitors in their schools to earn money and develop a connection to the school.

Encouraging poor young children to work as janitors will only entrap them further. They will spend less time studying and consequently will become adults who are unfit for any other kind of work. Which, i suppose, is his plan for them already.

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ORIGINAL: ArizonaBossMan

adam carolla is my new fucking ass douche hero. He's talking to you leftists... right at you. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/adam-carolla-breaks-down-occupy-movement-fking-self-entitled-monsters/#ooid=s4a2UzMzpXPJ0udzH1lN5S-7jxLaI_Sw

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ORIGINAL: LafayetteLady

Biggest problem with his statements are they are basically incorrect. He says "pay them as early as is reasonable and practical." Well, the laws have decided that 14 is reasonable and able. At that age, children are able to get working papers and get a part time job. Granted, few places are going to hire them, but they are able to work.

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ORIGINAL: ArizonaBossMan
Working at ANYTHING is a solution.

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ORIGINAL: gungadin09

A work permit?  In California, you can get one at age 16.  Basically, it means you can legally work, but until you're 18 there's still a lot of restrictions on the hours and kind of work you're allowed to do.

pam

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ORIGINAL: rulemylife

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ORIGINAL: gungadin09

A work permit?  In California, you can get one at age 16.  Basically, it means you can legally work, but until you're 18 there's still a lot of restrictions on the hours and kind of work you're allowed to do.

pam

I honestly never heard of it, and I've lived in a number of different states across the country.

I realize there are child labor laws and restrictions associated with them but I didn't know there were states that actually required work permits for underage workers.

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ORIGINAL: ArizonaBossMan

You just have to be brave enough to open yourself to new ideas... like freedom, like people get to keep more of what they earn, that taxing people to death is WRONG. You know, common sense things. Our modern leftists were never taught that.

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Instinctively young people know the leftist pablum is stupid and nonsensical.

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Instinctively young people know the leftist pablum is stupid and nonsensical

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Not to mention that jobs for kids are simply not that available anymore. Paper routes are usually done by car, not bike. People who can afford to get their lawn mowed hire a gardener, not a teenager.