Combined with an aging population and workers generally deciding that they want better compensation/benefits for their work, the US is facing a labor shortage. Under sane capitalist systems, business would be forced to increase compensation and/or work conditions to attract employees. Leave it to the Republican party to present a novel idea - have kids as young as 14 increase the labor pool.

I have worked my whole life - and I am all for kids taking on jobs. It teaches hard work, discipline, the value of money. All good things. But it is important to recognize that these aren’t the reasons that the Republicans are pushing for these new regulations. It simply to line the pockets of their wealthy donor class.

It is bad enough that we are forcing a young children back to factories, but it is really tragic that the laws are striping worker protections and protecting the employers from liabilities at the expense of child safety.

As Jason Lalljee reporting for the Insider:

The laws take aim at the number of hours that children are allowed to work and protect employers from liabilities due to sickness or accidents. In the case of the latter, those employer protections dovetail with the kind of dangerous industries the bills are looking to prop up: construction in Minnesota, and meatpacking plants in Iowa. The bills come as efforts to expand legal working ages in other states have ramped up recently, and as the US has seen an increase in child labor violations since 2015.

These aren’t the mall/retail jobs or the local small business that many of us worked growing up. These are jobs that are dangerous and require physical labor - leaving little time / energy for what kids should be doing - getting educated and learning the social skills that are required to become a productive member of society.

Besides there is an obvious solution to the current shortage that has proven to be quite effective to fill labor gaps in the past. And the Labor Board research bears it out:

The results indicate that higher wages along with additional non-wage benefits would have expanded the labor supply,

Should be obvious, but the business class in pursuit of the almighty dollar have decided they would rather hire kids then pay a living wage to adults.

From being able to support a family with only the husband salary, to barely supporting it even with two full time salaries, all the way back to child labor. The transformation back into feudalism is nearly complete. Hope you’re happy with the freedom to develop your slave career.

To the parents who are about to send their kids to the factories and slaughter houses, you might want to read The Jungle by Upton Sinclaire.