[legion]

It's summer. School is out. And that means kids are being bussed to Bloomington for the day from Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis to solicit for magazine subscriptions.

It's a cruel form of indentured servitude IMO. The kids are promised cash, prizes, and trips to Europe....IF they can sell enough subscriptions. They never do. Instead they are bussed from town to town for weeks and left alone for up to 10 hours a day to sell their quota...until they give up and stay home. They rarely get any kind of reward. I suspect that the drivers that recruit them keep most of the spoils. I notice that many (not all) of the vans that carry these kids are church vans, and they range in age from 13 to 17.

As cruel as it sounds, I always refuse to buy from them. I figure that long-term, the best thing is to get rid of the incentive to treat the kids this way, not reward it with my money and likely no compensation for the kid regardless.