I’m not even kidding, ‘Merica. I hear them now, it will save on taxes because
more kids will have to drop out of school to work. I read about this from Melissa
McEwan and Keith
Edwards.
Governor LePage of Maine thinks we aren’t using out most valuable
resources, which is apparently the exploitation of young people. LePage says, “We
don’t allow children to work until they’re 16, but two years later, when they’re
18, they can go to war and fight for us. That’s causing damage to our economy.
I started working far earlier than that, and it didn’t hurt me at all. There is
nothing wrong with being a paperboy at 12 years old, or at a store sorting
bottles at 12 years old.”
This obliviousness is kind of amazing. LePage says he started working at
11. Maine like every state has specific laws about child labor, in Maine
children under 16 have to get a work permit from the superintendent and meet
other requirements. The injustice of it all.
Child labor kind of flies in the face of a jobless economy because they
can drive down wages because people see children and think minimum wage is
fine, which decreases available job for adult and the jobs available can pay
less. Additionally, a lot of kids can’t maintain a job and school so they are
either constantly tired or don’t have time for school work.
McEwan notes that LePage isn’t the only Republican on this the “tiny
fingers better craftsmanship” ticket. He joins Newt Gingrich, Ray Canterbury,
and Jack Kingston. She also notes that
this is class war. After all kids who work for pocket money is very different
than kids who work to help pay the rent. But I guess this model is the new
model:
