Freddie Mac's $30K-per-hour grifter holds forth on the work ethic of the Poors

[schmanda]

Newt: Poor Children Have "No Habits of Working"
by Nick Kalman | December 01, 2011

GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich defended his stance against certain child labor laws during a campaign stop in Iowa Thursday, saying that children born into poverty aren't accustomed to working unless it involves crime.

"Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have

Comments

[lisasimpsonfan]

Such bullshit. Every person born into poverty, lord I hate that phrase, knows all too well what it's like to work. They see right from birth how hard Mom, Dad or whoever they live with has to bust their ass to keep the family together. Poor people do nothing but work. They don't take vacations like middle class people do. They don't work 8 hour days and then go home to dinner, they work 8 hours days then go home throw together dinner and then go to their next job. Poor people don't spent the weekends on the golf course or shopping in the mall, they spend their weekend working or trying to find a little time to connect with their children and partners.

NO people born into poverty, still hating that BTW, go into crime because they see how god awful being poor is and how it grinds you down day after day doing nothing but work but still somehow falling deeper and deeper down the poverty pit. F U Newt.

[lone_concertina]

That, or they can't afford things they need so they steal them.

This this this. I had to shoplift groceries for a couple of months when my roommate and I both lost our job and were denied unemployment for not reason. It ain't fun but it's either that or going hungry and tbh I'd rather eat.

[bestdaywelived]

Yep. I used to steal food from the restaurants I worked at because I couldn't afford groceries beyond bread and peanut butter.

[ladylothwen]

[nesmith]

Dean's expressions are so perfect for expressing the kind of "Yeah, sure, whatever" response that Newt's idiotic ramblings call for.

[emofordino]

right? only someone who has never had to worry about not having enough money to live could make such awful generalizations about those in poverty. so disgusting. i really hope there ends up being newt gingrich backlash, just like the michele bachmann/rick perry/herman cain backlash after they were at the top of the polls.

[roseofjuly]

THIS! It's always the richer students who say things like "Oh my parents give me an allowance because they want me to focus on school right now" (and when they say an allowance, they mean a couple hundred a month...in college) or "My parents told me that if I chose a cheaper place for college they would help me pay for graduate school." The poor kids are like "Dude, I'm so sorry I'm late but I'm coming from work" or "Fuck, my tuition is due."

Of course, the poor kids aren't REALLY at my school - Columbia brags about their financial aid packages about something like 40-50% of the students here are full-pay, which means their parents can pay the full cost of attendance. The CoA is About $50-60K a year. And even parents with six-figure salaries get financial assistance here, so by full pay we're talking about families that make nearly $200K and up.

[schexyschteve]

I'm just going to pretend this is from The Onion. I can't tell what comes from TO and what's real life anymore anyway, so it's just less head-desk-y this way.

[spyral_path]

Just how much experience of what really goes on in poor neighborhoods does Newt Gingrich have anyway?

If there good paying jobs available everywhere, people wouldn't have to find illegal ways to make a living.

[emofordino]

SERIOUSLY. like poor people ENJOY breaking the law. in nearly every case, the people who are doing illegal things for money are the ones who are doing so because the alternative is not having enough money to feed themselves and their families and keep a roof over their heads.

[the_gabih]

I honestly think that everyone who wants to hold a fairly major government position needs to spend a year living in a really shitty block of flats, making the average amount of money that people there do. Then we'll see what they think of poor people's work ethic.