Child tobacco pickers get sick- Fox News

[SLDS181]

Could you explain this a little more so I don't have to spend hours on google?

Sure....

Some of our tax dollars gets paid out to farmers, sometimes to supplement their income to keep them going, sometimes to influence what they are growing, and sometimes to control the market. If the price on american cotton is dropping because of international farmers making alot of it, they may ask farmers to not grow their cotton crop that year, to influence the price of american cotton and make it worth more.

We spend about 16 billion each year in farm subsidies.

 

[Superstargoddess]

Sure....

Some of our tax dollars gets paid out to farmers, sometimes to supplement their income to keep them going, sometimes to influence what they are growing, and sometimes to control the market. If the price on american cotton is dropping because of international farmers making alot of it, they may ask farmers to not grow their cotton crop that year, to influence the price of american cotton and make it worth more.

We spend about 16 billion each year in farm subsidies.

That all seems very silly to me. I hate politics and big business.

 

[SLDS181]

That all seems very silly to me. I hate politics and big business.

Well in some ways its good, it keeps farmers around, instead of losing all of our farmland in the US. In other ways its potentially pretty bad - alot of economists say farm subsidies end up making basic foods too expensive for the poor, and because of it, you end up with more Americans that are malnourished. I'm not an economist, so I'll withhold judgement call... because this is one issue I really haven't looked into very much.

 

[Superstargoddess]

Well in some ways its good, it keeps farmers around, instead of losing all of our farmland in the US. In other ways its potentially pretty bad - alot of economists say farm subsidies end up making basic foods too expensive for the poor, and because of it, you end up with more Americans that are malnourished. I'm not an economist, so I'll withhold judgement call... because this is one issue I really haven't looked into very much.

All of that stuff is just so much more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[ladyraj]

Hey TBob...the Cuban connection, wow...I didn't ever consider that angle. Thanks for the info!

 

[Superstargoddess]

Do we happen to have any USA farmers of any type of produce in the house?

 

[googled]

We need Fair Trade E-juice .

 

[quetzacoatl]

What disgusts me about the whole article is this:

"Mumba said Plan International is not calling for a ban on children in the tobacco industry, explaining that the goal is unrealistic in a country where poverty forces children to work."

It's our fault countries like that are as poor as they are. Really, it is. The United States has no manufacturing base anymore and now it's losing its farming and its service industry base, at least, those "services" that can be performed remotely via the internet or telephone.

We all shop at wal-mart, target, and all these other places where 99% of everything sold comes from overseas and it's become completely unavoidable unless you're hardcore "buy USA only". And even that's hard to do, since there are no regulations in the US that I'm aware of that say you have a right to know where your food comes from. (Correct me if I'm wrong, please).

If "Plan International" was in any way sympathetic to what those poor people go through, they would be advocating not only protective wear for workers, but also calling for BT to step up to the pump and pay the farms more for the tobacco. They'd rather fight for protective wear than for US companies to take responsibility and pay more for products they get from overseas so children don't have to work. Pathetic.

It won't be long before the US is poor and China is the one that's rich and outsourcing over here for pennies on the... yuan?

 

[Superstargoddess]

What disgusts me about the whole article is this:

"Mumba said Plan International is not calling for a ban on children in the tobacco industry, explaining that the goal is unrealistic in a country where poverty forces children to work."

It's our fault countries like that are as poor as they are. Really, it is. The United States has no manufacturing base anymore and now it's losing its farming and its service industry base, at least, those "services" that can be performed remotely via the internet or telephone.

We all shop at wal-mart, target, and all these other places where 99% of everything sold comes from overseas and it's become completely unavoidable unless you're hardcore "buy USA only". And even that's hard to do, since there are no regulations in the US that I'm aware of that say you have a right to know where your food comes from. (Correct me if I'm wrong, please).

If "Plan International" was in any way sympathetic to what those poor people go through, they would be advocating not only protective wear for workers, but also calling for BT to step up to the pump and pay the farms more for the tobacco. They'd rather fight for protective wear than for US companies to take responsibility and pay more for products they get from overseas so children don't have to work. Pathetic.

It won't be long before the US is poor and China is the one that's rich and outsourcing over here for pennies on the... yuan?

Our people in this country are getting more poor while big companies are ripping off other poverty filled countries to make their business make more money. It's a shame that something like this is legal. Big business doesn't care about our people, or those people, they only care about themselves. If they cared about us, they would give us jobs for normal pay. If they cared about those people, they would give them more money for what they do.

I hope that one day everything will be fair for everyone, but there is so much greed in the world that I don't know if that day will ever come. I really say that outsourcing should be illegal, especially in a time like this where unemployment is so high. Perhaps not allow outsourcing until everyone who is willing and able to work has a job, which would reduce the unemployment rate by a lot. I know that my state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and tons of people are getting laid off every day around here especially.

And if the government keeps going after the coal business, which is BIG business around here, then there will be even more people that are unemployed just so we can be a little more "green". Yep in most states, like mine, vehicles are not regulated on their output of fumes. I think that we need to get our priorities straight. Jobs for Americans>Going Green. But once again, that's just one of my whacky opinions!