And therein lies the problem. Minimum wage working is not "character-building" it's spirit crushing. There is a very big difference.

but the Obama's have lived both, and want that experience to help guide their daughter's life path.
To me, this is a positive.

you missed the point. You state the obvious true, but he is the first POTUS I ever heard that even contemplated something like that. The man has principle and integrity, something woefully lacking in any POTUS for 30 + years. I think Carter was a close second, despite his roots.

You assumed I was being critical. I wasn't. I was bitterly describing the economic situation in this country.

any analytical skill and/or compassion understands the economic conditions. I was bitterly forced into retirement, thank goodness, I HAVE, a minimum wage job to pay and supplement my SS. I made my responses known, on this thread, to people who want to be bitterly cynical. Obama did not make this economy the way it is and he has helped people who have to rely on minimum wage. That's my point. His daughter, IF, they have to experience minimum wage, WILL have the experience and maybe one day will be able to alter the lives of poor people because of it. Jenna, her sister, lizzie, never will help poor people because they have NO compassion toward them/us.

Is it nice that they will have the experience? Sure. But they will never actually be in any danger. They will never actually be for want of heat or food, healthcare or assistance.

It's like a person working in a soup kitchen and thinking that they know what it's like to be poor. You don't know unless you have been.

I hope it gives them perspective, yes. But they won't really know what it's like.

you say has some truth to it. I hope that by having just the experience of dealing with people in a macdonalds or some such one or both daughters, will, if possible later on in life, be able to draw on that experience with compassion and alter life for the poor and homeless who are with us always, now. That's all I'm saying/thinking.

Their children seem very grounded.

off-kilter about the idea that a kid from this background can actually understand what it's like to work and live on minimum wage. There are simply too many layers of protection, privilege, and wealth around them for this to be an honest endeavor. At some point there has to be an acceptance of the reality of the actual situation. To pretend that some "opportunity" will come along that will allow them to experience this totally different reality is condescending and deluded.

their daughters will never really experience what that is like - it is impossible. Yes, they could scoop ice cream or wait tables, but their experience will be defined by what their parents are now and what they will be in the future. They will never - unless they break completely from their parents - go home to the kind of place minimum wage affords. They will never have to decide between paying for groceries or paying rent. They will never have to say, "I can't afford this semester of tuition at the local community college" - or "I can't afford the $4.00 Medicaid co-pay for each of the seven different medications I need each month" .

They will never face the reality of the life behind a minimum wage job.

It's more about showing them - briefly - how the other half (or 99%) live, which is not quite the same as living it. Is it better than sending them straight off to an Ivy League college and hand-picked internships? Of course, but I'm not sure how much character-building they'll get, under the circumstances.

but maybe they'll at least have more of a clue than the Bush twins or others like them have had.

Whatever my criticisms of some of the president's policies have been I do think the Obamas try to raise their daughters to be decent human beings who have some empathy for other people and they deserve credit for that.

never get caught trying to buy liquor with a fake ID like one of the Bush girls did.

I'm sorry, but these children did nothing to deserve your scorn. They did not ask to be the kids of a president. They did not ask to be rich.

Did you scorn all the politicians who were doing their "radical chic" SNAP-for-a-week challenge stints, living off food stamps for a few days? I seem to recall they were much admired here. And it's a lot less hard than scooping frozen ice-cream for a summer.

Give these girls a break. If you don't like their parents, fine. But don't be dissing them for what their parents are. There's no shame in a rich kid learning how the other half lives, even for a summer.

I always see these girls dishing out food at the homeless shelters. I don't recall the Bush girls every doing anything like that (at least in public). Geez, ragging on children: that's pretty low.

But I do.

There is a huge difference between having a minimum wage to live on and going back to parents that are comfortable or more after a summer job.

At best, they will get to meet people they wouldn't otherwise.

have no clue. no clue!!!

Wouldn't want them to get discouraged, or anything.

they will move into some type of position as adults, and unlike the pampered RW children, by having that experience that it might spur them on to make positive changes for the poor, changes that will help alter society. Really disgusting non support on this site, from democrats some times. But these are cynical times. Liz chaney never worked minimum wage, bush co daughters never worked minimum wage and never did their parents think about it as a life experience. Those particular people are doing what today?

Maybe they can find them clerical jobs working in the DNC or for Hillary's campaign.

I don't think the SS wants them flipping burgers at a fast food joint.

It is not the same.

Something else we have in common LOL.

Of course, the Obama daughters may, I hope, never know what it is to pay all your bills, to really live on minimum wage. They will always be able to rely on their parents for help.

The point is not that they will have to do that for life, but that they will know people who do. If they are ever in position to make decisions which will benefit or harm the working class, they'll picture real people instead of stereotypes.

It gave my son food-for-thought when I remarked that his co-workers make less per year than his college tuition. And that even at a state school there would be very little left for the rest of the family. How can they help their kids through school?

We're not that well-off, but we live in an upper-class school district, and almost all of the parents of my kids' friends are doing very well. So much so that the kids take it for granted.

+1000

minimum wage jobs as a starting place and designed to empower yourself to do better?

I think this is a pointy-headed idea. Their girls will never know the realities of having to work in a hot as hell kitchen for minimum wage, then having to go to a second job for another 8 hours to pay the rent in a terrible neighborhood. It's a nice idea, but since they are not stupid girls, hey will know it's not their reality.

There are better ways to teach empathy.

Edited to add: I think this is a PR ploy, but I appreciate the idea behind it. I think they might learn more spending a week in a DC public school, which their parents protected them from. I can't blame them - I wouldn't send my kids to an underfunded public school either, but you know...this just doesn't really sit right with me. I like the idea, but think it is really ridiculous to expect them to understand the 99% from a summer job, which will probably be staffed with other young people and a lot of fun.

Not the best way to go about it, methinks.

-- Mal

If you've ever worked a minimum wage job, you know people who never have treat you like shit. These girls will get treated like shit at some point in any minimum wage job they get, almost guaranteed. Yes, they won't have to actually live on the wage, but you know damn well some jerk will think it's just fine to verbally abuse them for being low-wage workers, never mind the jerks who will abuse them assuming that "poor black girl" is just waiting to be a baby mama. You cannot experience that kind of attitude by people who you're attempting to provide a service without it changing you. Since they're being raised in a rich family, this will give them perspective they would never get otherwise.

Girls working minimum wage don't have secret service bodyguards to protect them from getting sexually
harassed by their boss or creeps hanging around waiting for them to get off work in the dark parking lot ...

They'll never get a taste of real life ... and THAT'S what "most folks go through every single day" ...

he should send them to bed HUNGRY

let them go to work HUNGRY

They'll NEVER know what it's like to struggle.

I've worked minimum wage jobs when I was in school. Yeah, I had my parents to provide me with a roof and food (it was understood that what I made would cover the rest of my college expenses from my pay) but working side by side with people who relied on such jobs make me realize how lucky I was, and what it was like to work at the bottom of the pile. If it does nothing other than make the Obama girls talk to people who depend on such jobs, great: it's something more politicians' children should do.

but when I recently retired my daughter who works as a dietitian at the high school asked me if I would like to fill in a part time position as a lunch lady (near minimum wage) just for the fun of it and the good exercise, since they were working short handed and weren't getting any applications. I found out very quickly what hard work for minimal pay means. I damn near died the first two weeks; every bone in my body hurt, and I learned from my co-workers that most of them went straight to a second job when they punched out.

Privileged or not, that is an education that teaches a lesson in humility and empathy.

are too things we need more of in this world. The news around the world is getting appalling.

Thank you,

The right wing will be jealous.

targets out there.

Some of the folks on this site have lost their minds.

In what universe do some of these fools think ANY child of a US President would find themselves trying to survive on a minimum wage job? Yet here they are, whining about the President wanting his daughters, to have some sense of what most people experience even if its extremely unlikely they'd ever be in that situation because of who their father is.

You can almost feel these nuts jobs hoping something bad happens to these kids down the road. I expect this from the insane right wing.

To read it on DU blows me away.

Such are the times we live in. And it's sad, and a little scary, but there it is.

Which automatically puts them at least one or two up on the Rand Pauls of the world.

Such good news for all the kids stuck working at McDonald's, not just for the summer - if they're lucky.

How about building your children's character for $15 / hour? Something wrong with that?

or genuinely wants his daughters to have any empathy for them, if he weren't simultaneously trying to pass the TPP, which will destroy jobs and lower the wages of over 90 percent of Americans.

Study: Obama's "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023661805