John Key's sweatshop youth rates
Funny way of looking at the world isn't it? MANA wants to give 16 and 17 year olds the vote, National want to see them as an easy source of slave labour. Paying young people less than the minimum wage is in effect slave labour. While the right will claim this is 'job creation' and allows their struggling business mates some respite from draconian Government regulation, the fact still remains that according to the Forbes Survey, NZ is actually one of the best places to do business in the world.
All this right wing criticism and claims of being hard done by and how tough it is to swim against Government regulation gets shown up as the self interested cacophony of spin it really is when compared to the rest of the planet.
Paying an age group less who can't even vote and extending it to 18 and 19 year olds who are one of the largest groups not enrolled is a cynical move aimed at denying a living wage to those already disenfranchised from the political process.
Expoliting youth unemployment to pay them less is not a solution, it's ugly sub standard pay that amounts to sweatshop wages.
Our young people deserve better than this.
posted by Bomber @ 11:46 am
3 comments
3 Comments:
The crux of the problem (other than National being bigoted right-wing *insert expletives here*) I think, is that all at once, we are looking at losses of jobs from all sides, giving many the scare to agree with National's less-than-perfect argument, while we are also seeing the steady increase in youth who REQUIRE a job because they have left school, are paying their own bills, and are generally contributing as much to society as any 'adult' (though that is a loosely coined phrase at best when 18 year olds are given that tag but are potentially having their right to an adult wage taken from them). Because when the day comes where every 16-19 year old still lives with their parents, is not dependent on a job, and does not have a massive student debt already hanging over their heads, I may agree with National - MAY.
Considering young people are More tech savvy (how often is it said "where's a kid?" when it comes to commissioning the latest household gadget)surely they should get paid More!
But we need to be more like China! China is THE Economic Miracle Country, so don't you see if we adopt their cheap labour policies we can be more like them!? All we need now is get rid of those pesky child labour and environmental laws and of course form a totalitarian police state (and we know they're already in advanced stages working on that one). We need to give National 3 more years. Just think what we can accomplish. We can be the Pacific Economic Miracle!
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