Posted on 09/28/2009 10:55:12 PM PDT by Nachum
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today announced nearly $59 million in grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor in fiscal year 2009 to combat exploitive child labor in 19 countries. The grants will help rescue more than 85,000 children from exploitive labor, and offer them hope for the future through education and training. The grants will also help improve collection and analysis of child labor data and support for the development and implementation of national action plans to address the problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The list, ping
Wonder if this applies to illegal 13 year old 'working' girls? Will any of this money get filtered over to ACORN?
We live in a fallen world. As much as I hate to hear about all the starving and abused children in the world, American can’t be the policeman and financier for the entire world. Charity begins at home. We need to stop spending money that we don’t have. We are trillions of dollars in debt, and we are in the midst of an economic recession. It’s time to put America first.
I oppose exploitative type child labor. But could we not just make a law that goods produced from exploitative type child labor can’t be imported, and save ourselves a whole lot of money? I think it would do more good.
I suppose enforcing such a law would cost. Would it cost that much?
Check ACORN offices for sex slaves.
Nike got shamed out of this kind of thing years ago.
So they say.
So do I, except when it's not exploitation, but rather, the difference between whether a family starves to death or survives.
I have the distinct impression that what was taken for granted in this country in the 20's and 30's (before the dawn of the New Deal) -- teenagers going to work, rather than high school, to help support their immigrant families -- would now qualify as "exploitation" by the enlightened in DC.
I think we are of the same mind on this. It is good for older kids and teens to work, within reason. I don’t think it should be dangerous, take up all their day, deprive them of a basic education, or be severely underpaid. These issues are judgment calls, though, and it is so easy to say “those 12 year olds shouldn’t work” from the relative wealth of our vantage point. Some families will literally starve if their kids can’t work at all.
This is none of our damned business. In some developing countries every one that is able to work must work in order for the family to survive, just as it was in our country when we were just starting out. What is our solution? Stop them from working and let them starve so that liberals can feel that they accomplished something and feel good about themselves?
If they have to work to survive, we shouldn't be exploiting them as cheap labor.
Instead of exporting products to us, let them pull themselves up by their own bootstraps by making stuff that they need for their own use.
How about child molestors like Jennings the “Safe Schools Czar”.
Kids working? It needs to happen more. From age 12 on I spent my summers in tobacco fields in NC, and was able to use the money earned (or at least most of it) for what I wanted. After 16 I also mowed lawns on Saturdays for more money. Drove a school bus my senior year (was legal back then in NC). Instilled a good work ethic in me.
But I guess that was exploitive child labor. Dangerous? Working in the fields, with tractors around (and driving said tractor on the highway), chance of snakes, and other hazards of farm work. Taking up all of the day? 7 to 6 with an hour for lunch, Monday thru Friday. Underpaid? $2.00 an hour back in 1977, $2.33 as a bus driver ($2.00 was minimum farm-hand wages, $2.30 was minimum wage).
Benefits? I already talked about the work ethic. I also saved up a good amount of money by the time I was on my way to college, and even though I dropped out and joined the Navy the money did come in handy. And sometimes I miss the innocent days of working in the fields. And one other benefit......after seeing how nasty tobacco is when harvesting it, I never had any desire to consume it in any form.
We would have a lot less juvenile crime if kids were kept busy during the summer.
Amen Brother! You are absolutely correct.
When I was a boy I began working at nine years old sacking groceries for 20 cents an hour. I never thought I was being exploited nor did my parents. It was just the American way of life and the beginning of the lifetime path to learn something we no longer have...work ethics. Eight hours pay for eight hours work. Something we lost in latter part of the 60’s.
The $59 million of USA TAXPAYER dollars equals to ~$695 for each exploited child. Worthless.
The $59 million could better be spent to close and shutter the US Department of Labor. More unemployed democrat/socialist bureaucrats. Priceless.
Hey Willie, did you ever think that by working to make products to export to us that the people working now have money, and can now create a demand for products to be used on them selves, which creates more jobs and wealth? Oh my God! That's capitalism. Run away, run away. Head for the "Free Store" and get yourself a big slice of pie in the sky.
Hey Willie, did you ever think that by working to make products to export to us that the people working now have money, and can now create a demand for products to be used on them selves, which creates more jobs and wealth?
Good grief, if you think that they're gonna pull themselves up by their own bootstraps with what WalMart pays them, then it really doesn't matter who you vote for anyway.
“We would have a lot less juvenile crime if kids were kept busy during the summer.’
Absolutely, all all my kids have worked. Why, my son is dragging buckets of dirt up a hill as I write (voluntarily! I didn’t make him take the job.)
I think most of us agree that the dawn to dusk sweatshop which deprives kids of every joy in life, or working with toxic chemicals, or hot grease, is not ok. But honest hard work is the best thing and I think you are spot on that a young man, if not kept busy doing something productive, will usually find something destructive to do.
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