On Weakening Child Labor Laws, GOPer Says Working at 11 Yrs "Not a Big Deal" "Doesn't Hurt Anybody"

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/571882/looking_to_weaken_child_labor_laws%2C_goper_says_working_at_11_years_old_%22not_a_big_deal%2C%22_%22doesn%27t_hurt_anybody%22

Maine Gov. Paul LePage hadn't made a secret of his support for legislation weakening child labor laws. But at a town hall meeting last Friday he really made his case, in comments flagged by Maine blogger (and Daily Kos user) Dirigo Blue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvYAOEPonvE

Of course, even in the process of supporting a backwards leap of about a century, LePage gets it wrong. He describes the bill affecting 14 and 15 year olds, when in fact it lowers wages for people up to 20 years old and eliminates the limit on hours a 16 year old can work on a school day.

And, in classic LePage fashion, he draws a dubious lesson from his own past: (link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/21/950329/-ME-Gov:-LePages-inadvertent,-but-apt,-metaphor)

I went to work at 11 years old. I became governor. It's not a big deal. Work doesn't hurt anybody.

The director of public policy at the Maine Women's Lobby tells Amanda Terkel: (link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/25/paul-lepage-maine-child-labor-laws_n_853503.html )

"Just look at the studies linking increases in substance abuse, delinquency, on the job injury and teen pregnancy with teens working long hours -- I think it is a big deal, and yes it does hurt somebody."

[Hannah Bell]

1. what work did he do when he was 11, mow lawns? work in his daddy's store?

[Riftaxe]

2. Those in poverty don't obey

those nice little wage laws, and when it comes to keeping body and soul together no decent person can blame them.

The proper thing is to ask why 11 year old have to work in the first place.

[Hannah Bell]

3. i don't believe he worked when he was 11.

"Paul LePage is the eldest son of eighteen children. He grew up speaking French in an impoverished home with what he has described as an abusive father.<1> At age eleven, he left home and lived on the streets of Lewiston, seeking shelter wherever he could find it, including in horse stables and at a "strip joint".<1><2> After spending roughly two years homeless, he began to earn a living shining shoes. At thirteen, he worked washing dishes at a café and hauling boxes for a truck driver."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_LePage.

something missing in the wikipedia account of this guy's history.

let me be the first to say, i don't buy it. an 11 year old managed to evade the authorities for 2-7 years in lewiston, maine (pop 35K)? in 1959 they still had truant officers, even.

then suddenly at 18-20 he applies to go to school at a private college? and gets in with help from a legislator?

nah, something is missing from this horatio alger bullshit.

the guy operates like a mafiosa. he lies about everything, 10 to 1 he's lying about this too.

[Riftaxe]

4. I guess we need to find out what he thinks work is...

Maybe he had to lick campaign envelopes... :P

[mrcheerful]

5. Excuse me but horse stables? Just how does one manage that when by 1959

most towns and cities had been taken over by that new fangled thing the horseless carriage which means towns nor cities allowed live stock within city limits. That sounds like stories my dad told me grown up in the 60's about his childhood, you know 1 room classrooms that required him walking 5 miles to school barefoot in 14 feet of snow up hill both ways and school lunch was a lard and sugar sandwich that he was grateful to have. Lier

[Hannah Bell]

7. i think he's a liar. well, i know he is, as he's been caught repeatedly,

but i think the story of his pitiful childhood has also been surgically enhanced.

[peacefreak]

9. With all due respect, Hannah,

have you ever been to Lewiston? It is still considered a pretty rough place. It was a mill & factory town, most of them closed down now--jobs shipped overseas, of course. Rows of tenements, a lot of poverty.
I could see how LePage fell through the cracks. A kid in 50's Lewiston was of little consequence.
I am no way a LePage supporter. I have to live here & wait & see what the asshole does every week. From the NAACP to the Labor Mural to cabinet resignations it's always something & it's usually not good. My face will be permanently marked from my :banghead:!




and a PS to any DU'er that lives around Lewiston...there are many nice parts to it, too!

[Hannah Bell]

10. my hometown was/is a mill & factory town too, & just a bit smaller. i have no idea what you

mean by a "rough place". are working class towns "rough places"?

my hometown has a lower median family income than lewiston.

judging by its population data, lewiston was more prosperous in 1959 than it is today.

i don't believe him; at the least, something is missing from this story.

[Adsos Letter]

6. "The proper thing is to ask why 11 year old have to work in the first place."

Excellent question. :thumbsup:

[Maine-ah]

13. ok, I don't like the man at all but...

he did grow up in poverty. His parents had many children, his father was abusive. He left his home when he was about 11 years old and lived on the streets in Lewiston. He made money shining shoes. He managed to get into college, because Olympia Snow's husband got Husson to give him his entrance exam in French.

[baldguy]

8. Fagin would be proud.

[seabeyond]

11. i started working at 12, in parents business and didnt hurt me. i also had parents make sure it

did not hurt me and was a good experience. unfortunately there are too many people that are greedy and abuse, hence the need for law

[left is right]

12. i don’t have any objections to 11 year olds working

on the family farm or in a family business, as long as it does not involve big, dangerous machines. My ex, back in the day, picked cucumbers for 10 cents for a neighbor; I don’t see that as a problem, either. But I would hate to see them exploited by some corporation

[tanyev]

14. Aha! That's the GOP plan for getting jobs back from China.

Sweatshop check and mate.

[justgamma]

15. It's going to be necessary to have your kids work.

As soon as they get rid of the unions, the minimum wage, and all the workplace safety rules you will need to have your kids working to get by.

Grassley thinks that we should make no more than the Chinese. $2.00 a day is what they make doing what I'm doing.