after 20 children were murdered in the sandy hook school shootings, concerned people across the country sent 67,000 stuffed animals to the survivors.

because aid organizations have no way to deal with redistributing 67,000 stuffed animals, and a house can contain only so many teddy bears, most wound up in a landfill. the same thing happened with donations of toys to children in haiti following a recent earthquake - so many piled up on the tarmac at the airports that there was literally no room for planes carrying supplies and medicine to land.

the lesson: send money.

contractors for fruit of the loom, hanes, and levis worked with the u.s. state department under president obama to block a minimum wage increase for haitian workers. the contractors lost; the new minimum wage went all the way up to 61 cents an hour - almost double what it had been.