Newt Gingrich Hates Poor Children

[homasse]

Newt’s War on Poor Children
By CHARLES M. BLOW

Newt Gingrich has reached a new low, and that is hard for him to do.

Nearly two weeks after claiming that child labor laws are "truly stupid" and implying that poor children should be put to work as janitors in their schools, he now claims that poor children don’t understand work unless they’re doing

Comments

[kitanabychoice]

This makes my brain hurt so much. The fact that this kind of ideology is the backbone of a serious contender for presidency makes me want to quit the US.

All I keep hearing lately boils down to, "poor people, how dare you exist!!!!"

[nothingmuch]

All I keep hearing lately boils down to, "poor people, how dare you exist!!!!"

Right? "Born poor? Nobody's born poor in the USA unless they deserve it! You OBVIOUSLY got poor by being a criminal lowlife! All you need is a damn job working for a rich guy who can pay you whatever he wants for your time, keep you from your family for as long as he pleases, put you in unsafe working conditions, and keep you from ever climbing out of poverty! YOU JUST HAVE TO WORK 48 HOURS A DAY TO GET AHEAD, DUHH!! AND IF YOU CAN'T DO THAT, YOU'RE WORTHLESS! JUST KILL YOURSELF NOW & SPARE US THE MEDICARE DOLLARS!"

[vanillakokakola]

yep. deciding to work 60-70 hours per week is much different than HAVING to work 60-70 hours per week.

i want to be a doctor, and usually that would require a big weekly time commitment, but since it's constantly an in-demand field, i'm hoping i'll be able to choose a specialty that has positions closer to 40 hours per week. but in the end, i'm choosing that field where i may have incredibly long work weeks, i'm not being forced into it by the dissolution of a living wage.

[roseofjuly]

This, and it's not like there aren't problems inherent with expecting doctors to work 70 hour weeks anyway. I know the AMA recently put recommendations in place for how long residents could be on call because they were making mistakes out of sheer sleep deprivation.

[elialshadowpine]

Oh good. I hadn't heard about that, but it makes a lot of sense. I remember Mom telling me about when she was in college for a nursing degree, and one of her professors point blank asked her why she wanted to be a nurse when she was easily good enough to be a doctor, and the hours were why. She still has to work a lot as a nurse, but the hours a doctor has to put in, particularly as a resident, are just mind-boggling. I'm very glad to hear they are finally putting a limit on that.

[elialshadowpine]

This. My mom has had to work some awful hours as a nurse (although they have thankfully now let her cut back as she's gotten older and can't deal with the stress as well as she used to), but she loves her work, and it's what she chose. And she is well-paid for working those hours.

When I have a friend who works at Burger King as a manager that starts talking about having to work those types of hours for minimum wage (and was often asked to work them off the clock because she wanted to get promoted to manager)... I kinda think that's a different fucking matter.

[roseofjuly]

But don't you see a problem that the majority of people in your field are forced to work 70 hour weeks - that's either 10 hours 7 days a week, or ~12 hours 6 days a week, or 14 hours 5 days a week - in order to make a living? And maybe you don't need the extra hours, but you're more or less forced to do it if you want to keep your job and this is a field-wide problem, so moving to another job is not an option.

In the 12 hours/6 days a week scenario, add an hour of travel time round trip to that. If you're leaving the house at 8:30, working until 8:30 pm, leaving getting home at 9...if you're going to get up at 7:30 in the morning to get ready again you basically have 3 hours to eat, relax, and chill before you go to sleep if you want to get a decent 7.5 hours a night. Almost every single day of the week. You only get one day off to take care of business - go grocery shopping, go to the bank, not to mention spend with your loved ones.

Personally I see a problem with that, and I also work in a field where it is customary to have

[roseofjuly]

You pretty much ignored everything I said and answered a question I didn't ask.