US Government Agrees It’s Fine to Hire Children To Clean Slaughterhouses
As long as you pay them their cut.
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As a libertarian, I honestly don’t know where you’re getting that. Libertarianism is firmly rooted in consent, and minors cannot consent, so libertarians should be opposed here.
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I found this instance of the New Hampshire Libertarian Party calling for ending child labor laws, and in that article, we find this quote from former Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Gary Johnson:
“I’m sorry, but no. This isn’t what libertarianism means to millions of Americans - pushing a disturbing and out of touch stance on child labor is entirely detached from what people need in America today. This does not advance liberty, or help change people’s opinions,” former Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson responded.
There’s also this Mises article, which argues that kids used to be able to work (largely with their parents), and thus should be able to work. Current labor laws, if I’m not mistaken, are something like this:
- 12-16 - can work with parents present
- 16-18 - can work with parental approval
That’s reasonable. I would take this a step further and allow employment of 12-16yos with parental approval and adult supervision by specifically named adults the parents are aware of, and notice should be sent to the school body and local relevant agency of such employment. Employment should be limited to work a child could reasonably do safely (e.g. sweeping, lawn mowing, etc), and hours would be limited as well (max 4 hours at a time without parent present, break every hour).
Here’s a larger article from Libertarian publication Reason about the incident, as well as the larger issue of the Mises caucus. The Mises caucus has since taken control of the national Libertarian Party, but I don’t believe that should be construed to mean libertarians in general support things like the NHLP policy on child labor, it just means libertarians are frustrated with the lack of results and want to try something different.
At the very least, this should demonstrate that this isn’t a policy libertarians are united on. There’s a lot of nuance here, and the backlash over the relatively tame policy position of the NHLP shows that a large chunk of libertarians are unwilling to even go down that path.
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No, children do not need to do labor to live. The goal here is to teach kids through work experience, meaning time management (juggle work, school, and play) and managing money.
Here’s my personal experience:
- mowed lawns around 14yo
- did simple landscaping at 15yo
- cleaned offices and had a programming internship at 16yo
More than half of that money went to my school fund, and is a large part of why I didn’t need student loans for college. I also used it to buy things my parents wouldn’t get me, such as a gaming console.
If we allow kids under 18 to work (and we should, with lots of limits and safeguards), it should have some clear restrictions:
- none of the money is used for family expenses
- parents can use a custodial account, but that can only be used to give the child spending money or saved until the child is 18yo (may be invested in something like a 529 or IRA as well for the child); every withdrawal is tracked by the custodian and subject to review
- if the child raises complaints, work ends immediately; children may not be able to consent, but they can certainly opt out
- at 16yo, the child gets to decide how to get paid (which account, etc)
That should prevent most of the abuse since parents wouldn’t get any benefit from the labor. The only goal should be for the child’s benefit, not to somehow benefit the parents.
The NHLP went too far, and were rightly called out for it.
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Hahahaha
Today I learned that you can “agree” to fines.
Well, the alternative is to fight it in court.
It’s part of getting a traffic ticket. Agree, confess, mail your check to the judge. Or take time off to show up and contest it.
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You’ve never heard of a consent decree or plea bargain? They’re common legal tools to avoid lengthy and expensive trials.
The child labour fees plus the fine probably works out cheaper than employing off legal working age workers, so it isn’t really a fine.
If it’s just a fine and no jailtime, then it’s the cost of doing business.
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And a mandate to no longer employ minors? Or what? Another $650,000 fine?
The work included sanitizing dangerous equipment like head splitters, jaw pullers and meat bandsaws in hazardous conditions where animals are killed and rendered.
The WHAT? Jesus Christ. Reading sentences like this will definitely make me eat less meat.
The work included sanitizing dangerous equipment like head splitters, jaw pullers and meat bandsaws in hazardous conditions where animals are killed and rendered.
One 14-year-old was severely injured while cleaning the drumstick packing line belt at the plant in Virginia, the investigation alleged.
This is not just bad hours, it is dangerous working conditions. Putting a group that is characterized as having extremely poor risk assessment skills , struggle to even really understand consequences of actions, and making them work with heavy machinery that is extremely dangerous to life and limb. THAT is egregious neglect of child labor laws.
The labor department has called attention to a growing list of child labor violations across the country, including the fatal mangling of a 16-year-old working at a Mississippi poultry plant, the death of a 16-year-old after an accident at a sawmill in Wisconsin, and last year’s report of more than 100 children illegally employed by Packers Sanitation Services Inc, or PSSI, across 13 meatpacking plants. PSSI paid over $1.5m in civil penalties.
The labor department’s latest statistics indicate the number of children being employed illegally in the US has increased 88% since 2019.
Wtf sorry what??? This is a growing problem in America HOW, WHY???
Wtf sorry what??? This is a growing problem in America HOW, WHY???
Republicans will always undermine regulations, including regulations on child labor.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/06/12/child-labor-is-on-the-rise
In Ohio, where Republican legislators are also proposing weaker laws, a spokesman for the Ohio Restaurant Association testified that extending work hours for minors would cut down on their screen time. (The lawmakers offered a concurrent resolution urging Congress to lower federal child-labor standards to conform with Ohio’s proposed rules.) Arkansas’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, recently signed a law ending a requirement that fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds obtain a parent’s consent and a state permit before starting work. Linking the bill, strangely, to parental rights, the governor’s office called the permit “an arbitrary burden on parents.”
Ooooh wow thank you for that. An arbitrary burden on parents, that’s rich.
Imagine treating your children like this and then saying shit like “America is the greatest country in the world”. Between this and school shooting responses proves that America doesn’t give a fuck about its kids. Fucking mind boggling world we live in
Oh don’t worry, these are likely mostly migrant children, so those people believe America is great because of this.
Also, they were probably separated from their parents at the border and haven’t seen them in years so I don’t think they’re saying that.
Ain’t this country grand?
They don’t like immigrants and US citizens are starting to demand higher wages.
Gotta find new workers to exploit to keep wages low.
And how much did it save by hiring the minors? Cost of doing business…
What are we even doing man. When I read headlines like this it’s just embarrassing to be a US citizen.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A Tennessee-based sanitation company has agreed to pay more than half a million dollars after a federal investigation found it illegally hired at least two dozen children to clean dangerous meat processing facilities in Iowa and Virginia.
The US labor department announced on Monday that Fayette Janitorial Service LLC entered into a consent judgment, in which the company agrees to nearly $650,000 in civil penalties and the court-ordered mandate that it no longer employ minors.
The labor department alleged that Fayette used 15 underage workers at a Perdue Farms plant in Accomac, Virginia, and at least nine at Seaboard Triumph Foods in Sioux City, Iowa.
The work included sanitizing dangerous equipment like head splitters, jaw pullers and meat bandsaws in hazardous conditions where animals are killed and rendered.
The agreement stipulates that Fayette will hire a third-party consultant to monitor the company’s compliance with child labor laws for at least three years, as well as to facilitate trainings.
The labor department has called attention to a growing list of child labor violations across the country, including the fatal mangling of a 16-year-old working at a Mississippi poultry plant, the death of a 16-year-old after an accident at a sawmill in Wisconsin, and last year’s report of more than 100 children illegally employed by Packers Sanitation Services Inc, or PSSI, across 13 meatpacking plants.
The original article contains 374 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 40%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I feel like some crimes, like this one maybe, should result in the organization being nationalized and those in decision making positions barred from working in the industry.
