HORATIO & NEWT: HEAPING THE BLAME FOR POVERTY ON CHILDREN
By Jim Washburn
If Horatio Alger was alive today, do you think he’d be changing the arc of his stories to suit the times, with his plucky young characters of today persevering their way from rags to ditches?
No. Horatio Alger was an asshole. He’d still be writing the same Ragged-Dick-pulls-himself-up-by-his-own-jockstrap stories he did in the Reconstruction Era, because they were just as cruelly untrue then.
Two things have set me thinking about Horatio Alger’s works, the first being Freddie Mac housing expert Newt Gingrich opining that we need to roll back our child labor laws, which he said are “truly stupid.” He’d like for poor kids as young as nine to replace their school janitors, so they can learn the work ethic, as opposed to well-off kids, who are evidently born with a work ethic.
Newt’s the great thinker of the Republican party, the one who cogitates grand iconoclastic, innovative ideas, such as going back to shit that wasn’t working a century ago.
The other thing was a piece I read in the LA Times about a study conducted by Wells Fargo Securities, not exactly a bastion of liberalism, which drove another nail in the coffin of the Alger myth. It found that the percentage of poor Americans who were able to improve their lots—never a big number to begin with—dropped sharply in the years from 1980 to 2009, compared with years previous to then.
As summarized by Times writer Walter Hamilton, “The drop in economic mobility, combined with recently declining government aid to the poor, has left many Americans with no way to dig themselves out of poverty.”
30 Comments
Like many of the more liberally-oriented opinionists among us, Mr. Washburn is quite adept at glossing over the things some conservatives actually say, and replacing those with hyperbole and leftist rhetoric in clear efforts to discredit them.
An expanded explanation of what Gingrich said -and meant- on this matter can be found at the LA Times, not exactly a bastion of liberalism.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/01/nation/la-na-1202-gingrich-child-labor-20111202
Newt said what he meant, face it, he is an asshole– not to mention a crook and a two time philanderer. Only a real prick divorces a women dying from cancer by handing her a hand written settlement while she was lying in a bed in ICU.
“Newt Gingrich said Thursday that poor kids have no habit of earning money “unless it’s illegal” and should be put to work in their schools.”
“”Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and nobody around them who works,” Gingrich replied. “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.”
the expanded remarks are much clearer i think…
“As president, Gingrich says, he’d reserve the right to ignore any Supreme Court decision he disputed. He’d support having police or U.S. marshals drag judges before Congress for interrogation. And he’d be all for abolishing courts if he didn’t like their rulings.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2011-12-19/Gingrich-Supreme-Court-judges/52082316/1
No Newt is good Newt.
Newt is not perfect, that’s for certain. Nor do I agree with all of his positions, actions, or comments.
When the views of political figures, from either side of the aisle, are so blatantly misrepresented by some folks in the media, I disagree with that as well.
Too bad more folks here can’t bring themselves to do so.
Citizen Journalist Quotes of the Day –- The Deadliest Enemy of Tyranny – Revisited
“Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.” — Neal Boortz
“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.” — Frederick Douglass
“The Framers of the Constitution knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.” — Hugo Black
“When the public’s right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.” — Christopher Dodd
“Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech.” — Charles Bradlaugh
“By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a license, such a statute creates a threat of censorship that by its very existence chills free speech.” — Harry A. Blackmun
“Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed.” — Anna Quindlen
(Source: brainyquote.com)
Note: The above quotes where first posted on “Greater Long Beach” in November, 2011.
@John Greet: Hey! Now that I have your attention, I was wondering how you feel about the wackos the Republican party is putting up for their debates. When the sanest guy in the clown car is Newt Gringrich, what are you going to do in the primary, John?
I sit here wondering when I look at the Republican nominees, which one do you think can beat Obama?
I am not being facetious…I am really wondering.
Hi Ms. LB. I honestly do not yet know. I am not completely happy with any of the current crop of Republican hopefulls.
I am certain of only one thing at this point: Anyone…repeat ANYONE… would be better than our current President.
Well that’s true John. Can we not say stuff. 3 northern Repub. presidents assassinated between 1865-1901, in sync with mass immigration of non-english speakers between 1880-1920, that this changed US and had us join our opposite.
rino2: Not entirely certain of the direction you’re heading there. Are you attempting to establish causation between Presidential assasination and mass immigration? If you, you have lost me.
That this great nation has become greater still because of many of our immigrants is clear. The many constructive and productive contributions immigrants have made here is well-documented. Unless one is 100% Native American, all are immigrants here to one degree or another, and it is widely believed that even those proud peoples migrated here from elsewhere.
Yes, that’s who we are.
By “who we are” I mean e pluribus unum – it’s who we are sink or swim.
rino2: Agreed!
“When the views of political figures, from either side of the aisle, are so blatantly misrepresented by some folks in the media, I disagree with that as well.”
where is the misrepresentation in the above article? where and how is gingrinch’s position misrepresented? put up or shut up greet.
For many years I worked in the projects doing home health nursing visits in these households…. Newt is absolutley right on this one.
howardx still beleives he has some sort of standing upon which to direct any sort of civil response from me on any topic.
His memory is apparently as short as his ethics are challenged.
one wonders why you make statements at all considering your complete inability to back your bullshit up with facts.
howardx still believes I have any concern whatsoever about what he wonders concerning what I have to say.
His memory is apparently as short as his ethics are challenged.
Citizen Journalist Quotes of the Day — The Beginning and the End
“It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.” — Aristotle
“Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.” — George Jean Nathan
“This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” — John Fitzgerald Kennedy
“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union… Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
“I feel that I am a citizen of the American dream and that the revolutionary struggle of which I am a part is a struggle against the American nightmare.” — Eldridge Cleaver
“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.” — Kofi Annan
“As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.” — Adlai E. Stevenson
(Source: thinkexist.com)
greet still doesnt get that im playing to the audience here, not him. no doubt his obfuscation filled refusals to back up his own words have been noticed.
Citizen Journalist Quote of the Day
“Simply stated, it is sagacious to eschew obfuscation.” — Norman R. Augustine
Sorry, Dwight, you lost me at sagacious… : )
howardx doesn’t seem to get that I’m not “playing” at all, to an audience or otherwise. I am attempting to be sincere, civil, and factual. I am attempting to learn something about issues that interest me through courteous and mature discussion and debate.
I offer respectful responses to those willing to offer the same to me in return. howardx has proven on several occasions that he is either unwilling or unable to meet me in the arena of ideas as a mature and intelligent adult.
He gets no intellectual satisfaction from me because he deserves none.
“He gets no intellectual satisfaction from me”
thats it in a nutshell, i find your pedantic priggishness uninteresting at best.
howardx doesn’t seem to get that I’m not concerned in the least about what he finds or does not find concerning the manner in which I choose to comment.
then there isnt a problem is there greet? you continue not being concerned about what i say and i will continue to point out your copious inconsistencies.
howardx has the right to manufacture all of the inconsistencies he likes. I’ll do my best to stick with the verifiable facts already in existence, rather than constantly seeking, as he does, to manufacture them out of thin air.
Amazing how the party of religious and family values, morals ad nauseum even considers this ethically and morally failed heathen.
Ho ho newt an open marriage what a scumbag. Hope when newt gets sick calista dumps his sorry ass-on his sick/death bed!