Yes, I am all for child labor laws. They are good for the nation. However, like everything else, they can be taken to an extreme. That "extreme" is exactly what the Daily Caller is talking about in this post on the Department of Labor seeking to regulate child labor on farms.
From the article it seems that a one size fits all model is being applied and being applied in an unreasonable manner.
What does the Department of Agriculture say?
Regards — Cliff
Just another example of the Nanny State in action.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on a farm....all of my relatives did....all of my friends did. I drove a Ford tractor at the age of 5...and the biggest thrill was to mount the big John Deere at 8. I picked apples at the age of 8 as well as cherries and pears and peaches. That required climbing 12 to 18 foot ladders in the orchard....often on slopes. You learned how to set the tongue of the ladder so as to make it stable on a slope.
I worked my uncle's turkey farm for most of my childhood and teen years....cleaning out brooder houses, moving range roosts, humping 75 lb bags of feed, clipping wings, giving antibiotic shots,
I noticed early on in my life the differences in farm kids and city kids. On the football field, we were pretty overpowering as a general rule....after all...most of us spend out summer "vacation" putting in 12-14 hour days of more or less steady labor.
Oh sure, some kids were hurt, some seriously, some killed. We sort of viewed it as life up close and personal. We also vowed to not do whatever befell the other guy.
We swam in irrigation canals with no lifeguard. I drove the tractor pulling a huge spray rig that sprayed a powerful fan of all sorts of stuff....DDT....parathion....malathion, dieldrin, you name it. We didn't wear masks either.....but you tried not to breath the stuff even though the orchard reeked of whatever you were applying that week.
Frankly....I think kids are being horribly deprived....