Tag: Child Labor

Progressives Okay Child Labor For Green Energy

George Noga

Statehood for the District of Columbia? Not so fast!

Progressives Okay Child Labor For Green Energy

By: George Noga – August 23, 2020

Microtopics: In our post of 8/30/17 we presciently wrote, “Tearing down Robert E. Lee statues is the camel’s nose under the tent. Does anyone doubt where this ultimately is heading – Stone Mountain, Mount Rushmore, etc.”. . . . Those who consternate about money in politics need to remember Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. They spent a billion dollars and all they have to show for it is American Samoa. . . . . . It’s getting better all the time. The decade of the 2010s brought vast reductions in poverty, hunger and disease. Extreme poverty fell from 18% to 8%; life expectancy increased 3 years; and half the people in the world are now middle class. . . . . During this same time, the annual growth rate in Europe was 0.9% versus an historically low 2.0% in the USA. Sales (VAT) and payroll taxes in Europe are 2 to 3 times higher than in America.

Progressives for child labor: Democrats in the House recently passed a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that is a gigantic pork fest. An amendment was proposed to prohibit child labor in the mining of rare earth minerals needed to fund the charging stations for the electric buses mandated by the legislation. Every Democrat on the committee voted against the amendment. When you are trying to save the earth from fossil fuel, it apparently is okay to use young children in the mines of Zambia and the Congo.

Statehood for DC – not so simple: The House voted, strictly along party lines, to grant statehood to the District of Columbia and thus guarantee 2 new Democrat senators. This is part of the progressive plan to govern in perpetuity without any checks and balances. If they gain control of government in the 2020 elections, this is sure to pass in 2021. Normally, statehood requires passage only by simple majorities in Congress and signature by the president. Unfortunately for Dems, this does not apply to DC as it violates the 23rd Amendment. Dems propose to repeal the 23rd Amendment, but that requires a 2/3 vote in Congress plus ratification by 38 states. Good luck with that.

Antifa versus John Stuart Mill: Antifa believes in shutting down all opponents – with violence if necessary. Contrast this with Mill who wrote in On Liberty: “He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. . . . . Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers . . . He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them, who defend them in earnest, and who do their utmost for them.”

MLLG government reforms: (1) Move most federal agencies out of Washington and closer to the people. Move Agriculture to Iowa, Interior to Montana, Energy to Texas, etc. (2) Require federal employees and Congress to send their children to public schools in Washington. (3) Eliminate/reform civil service to enable firing bureaucrats. (4) Make Congress and federal employees prepare their own tax returns. (5) Require Congressmen to notify the next of kin of soldiers from their district killed in battle.

Non-Renewable energy lasts forever: If something is finite, it must eventually run out. If something is renewable, it can never run out. However counter-intuitive, both the preceding statements are wrong. Markets use price signals; as prices rise, people are incentivized to curtail use, recycle, seek substitutes and find new sources. Energy and other resources are not finite in any meaningful economic sense. As time goes on and population soars, minerals are becoming more – not less – plentiful. Try as I might, I can not find even one natural resource that ever has been depleted; can you? It is possible however for renewables to run out, e.g. rivers can run dry, obviating dams.

Montana Moment: I am in Montana for the summer. While hiking among pristine mountains, streams and fields, I ran into God. I was taken aback, but summoned the temerity to ask what he was doing in Montana. He replied, “I am working from home”.

On August 30th we reflect on the 75th anniversary of Japan’s WWII surrender.
More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Lessons From the Bangladesh Tragedy

George Noga

By: George Noga – June 17, 2013

    Our hearts go out to the victims of the building collapse in Bangladesh; they were hard workers striving simply to build a better future. The government building inspectors and all others who are complicit deserve severe punishment. However, it is crucial we learn the correct lessons from the workers’ terrible sacrifice. The media and their liberal camp followers have been quick to draw conclusions and to apportion blame; among the things they believe are:

  1. Greedy capitalists choose to pay subsistence wages for working in intolerable conditions;
  2. Capitalists’ ill-gotten gains can be used for higher wages and better working conditions;
  3. Desperate conditions in Bangladesh are due to an absence of government regulation;
  4. Globalization and free trade harm the poor and exploit child labor; and
  5. Boycotts of companies that sell products made in bad conditions help the poor.

    Each and every one of the above beliefs is wrong; they are voodoo economics and the consequences of acting on these beliefs is highly destructive. The masses in Bangladesh already are living at bare subsistence; anything that increases the cost of employing them – be it higher wages or better conditions – comes at their expense and results in unemployment. The higher the price of anything, the less will be bought; this applies universally including in Bangladesh.

“Economic Liberty – not government intervention – creates wealth.”

    Everyone desires higher wages and better working conditions for third-world workers. Ignoring the laws of economics (media and liberals) only worsens the situation. To actually bring about such results  requires the maximum degree of economic freedom and the dead minimum of government and outside interference. We have seen time and time again – in Hong Kong, South Korea, India, and now China that within one generation workers are much better off. New factories open with more advanced equipment and competition for labor intensifies leading to higher wages. As wages rise, workers are willing to trade off for better conditions.

Globalization – Free Trade – Child Labor – Boycotts

    Globalization and free trade benefit the poor in particular. To the chagrin of elitists, the poor grasp this viscerally; that’s why, inter alia, they embrace Wal-Mart. The greatest beneficiaries are those who live in poor countries (including Bangladesh) with whom we trade. Voluntary labor – yes including children – and even at low wages and less than ideal conditions – is not exploitative.  Workers choose to work because it is better than what they had before  and offers a path to a better life. This is how they work their way out of poverty.

    Workers (including children) in Dickensian England were better off in the factories than the life they voluntarily left. It was the same in the United States where child labor was common until the early part of the twentieth century. My uncle began working in the coal mines at age six because young children with their small, lithe bodies could crawl into small places.

“Who do you trust to look out for children: government or parents?”

    In England and the US, child labor had vanished well before the passage of child labor laws. As soon as humanly possible, parents remove their children from the labor force. It comes down to who do you trust to have the best interests of children at heart – their parents or government?

   Boycotts are primarily the province of economically illiterate movie stars with too much time on their hands. Even if a boycott could be effective, the greatest harm would befall the displaced workers trying desperately to lift their families out of poverty. Low income Americans also are harmed by having to pay more for many products just to pander to the falsetto angst of Hollywood types who feel but do not think.

   The media and liberals set up straw men, in this case greedy businessmen, and then rail against them. They don’t understand economics and they don’t know what they don’t know. They ignorantly call for boycotts that harm those they seek to help. Then, satisfied they have demonstrated their compassion and good intentions, they retreat back inside their plastic bubble where life is so much simpler than in the real world, where thinking rather than feeling counts.