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EXCERPTS
I used to work in a business that created and sold things. The catch-all word "widget" fits well, so we'll use that. We sold widgets. Some of the widgets we sold were bigger than others, some were definitely more fun to sell, and some were pretty boring but at least we made money from them &em; and the focus, after all, was to make a profit.
When my son decided he wanted to sponsor a child in a developing nation, the very first thing I set out to learn was how much of my son's paper route money would actually go to the well-being of the sponsored child. I wanted to make sure that, after reasonable administration costs, our Rwandan widget benefited from the cash. The focus after all, shouldn't be to make a profit.
The nature of any economy insists that if money is spent, some of it will go to places you didn't intend or realize. There are extremes; some corrupt foreign government may pocket all international aid, which isn't what I intended with my disaster relief donation, or my son may use his allowance to buy firecrackers. Either way, the control freaks among us often find it tough.
If there is one issue, however, where societies need to step off the profit-powered money wheel, it is child care. Australian Eddy Groves has specifically tapped into countries with government daycare subsidies, and his cost-cutting measures have led to ongoing political and legal battles regarding substandard care and employee treatment.
He has figured out how to wring every last nickel out of the management and care of little Australian ankle-biters. He has turned children into widgets, and can now tally his profits from his yacht.
Eddy has announced plans to come to Canada. The opposition parties in this country are fighting to get Bill C-303 passed to maintain quality care for our children. The Conservatives will probably show up for Fast Eddy's first ribbon cutting. Not their kids going in there.
Have you ever shopped at one of those cavernous warehouse places that promise "we pass the savings on to you"? Have you pushed down box-crowded aisles, picked through busted up packaging, scoured best-before dates to avoid hazardous conditions?
Should any child, even if he's not yours, be subjected to similar conditions? When the profit margins are narrow, those seeking profit will scrape for every dime. Profit margins on decent, licensed child care are already non-existent. Workers are paid poorly, government standards are blessedly high, and parents are already squeezed in the middle. For someone to come in and start skimming money from the process means only one thing: the kids will suffer.
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Where is the moral outrage that we have become a community that would rather incarcerate a 16-year-old than teach a 3-year-old? How backassed has our thinking become?
Some kids need daycare; some kids need after-school care; some kids don't require either outside of the home. Regardless of the composition, every one of those children needs a safe, educational experience.
Where do the broken widgets go?
- reprinted from the Toronto Star