Tea Party to roll back US Child labor laws

This is worse than slavery, because at least the slave owners provided room and board; this is more like the feudal lords of the dark ages who not only kept everyone poor but demanded high taxes as well.

I think much is left out in this article it does appear.

all they do is give tax breaks to corporations and pay for them by crushing the middle class and poor. they're monsters out of control.

It is time the American rich realised that without the poor they would have nothing. It is asking for trouble to keep pushing the working classes further down the economic ladder, they are an integral part of every society and do have their place in society.
Great reporting rated up.

How far are these immorals willing to go? I wonder.

Minimum wage should be raised, not lowered.

But since when is a person who is old enough to have a driver license considered a child?

By age 12, most females are able to bear children. By age 13, most males are able to do their part in making children. Doesn't this indicate that they've stopped being children?

Actually, according to the founders and our Constitution, childhood and voting and those other "adult" responsibilities such as paying taxes, or having any real voice in government was 25, which is still five years less than the Jews who believe that full manhood is not reached until 30, although it begins at 13.

And more than ever today, kids aren't grown until they are 30 and have their first real job, or mortgage.

yeah, and lots of these teens need a decent pay for their age group. they are growing up and they need to pay their own gas and buy their own stuff. and eventually, become responsible enough to get their own place.

MMMmm? We seem to be going the opposite direction in Western Canada;

Premier announces increase to minimum wage



VICTORIA - Premier Christy Clark today announced British Columbia’s minimum wage will increase in three stages to $10.25 by May 1, 2012 and the training wage will be eliminated, providing more support for B.C. workers and families in every region of the province.



“Raising the minimum wage and eliminating the training wage is a fair and reasonable step forward in putting families first and building our economy. This increase could mean more than $4,000 additional dollars annually for a full-time employee, providing more support to B.C. workers and the families who depend on them,” said Premier Clark. “Businesses told us they needed time to adjust to increases in the minimum wage and we’re pleased we’ve been able to provide that certainty to them through three predictable stages.”



The general minimum wage will increase on May 1, 2011 to $8.75 and be $10.25 per hour by May 2012.



As of May 1, 2011 the training wage is also repealed and all hourly-paid employees will be entitled to the general minimum wage regardless of how long they have been in the paid labour force.

We have jets in Libya, boots on the ground in Afghanistan, Universal Health Care, Provincial & Federal elections this spring, a rising dollar AND rising minumum wage...and the Vancouver Canucks are on the top in the NHL! Old "socialist" Canada is looking better every day?

Let's tell them Andy!!!

Rate your comment way up for good old Canada. You should turn your comment into a post of your own.

Love it

Have a nice day!!

I'm not a Tea Party member, so don't any of you go blasting me for the following comment.

The Tea Party has nothing to do with left-right, Republican-Democrat political dialectics. It's a movement composed of people who are focused on the U.S. Constitutional Republic. It's actually more correctly described as a Libertarian movement.

Individuals from both sides of the dialectic have been trying to insert their prejudices into the Tea Party agenda. The goal is to sabotage this grass-roots movement.

If the U.S. doesn't return its focus to the Constitution, all the hard-won freedom and liberty gained over the past almost 100 years will be lost. In its place will be a dictatorship more vicious and authoritarian than any of its predecessors. This is exactly what the global bankers who're pushing the One World Police State agenda want.

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to G-d!"

"The Tea Party has nothing to do with left-right, Republican-Democrat political dialectics. It's a movement composed of people who are focused on the U.S. Constitutional Republic. It's actually more correctly described as a Libertarian movement."

Absolutely Nick... and nicely stated. I am a Tea Party Republican; I support gay rights agendas, legalized same sex marriage, and a woman's right to choose. Why? Because they're Constitutional issues, and the Constitution should take precedence over the Bible, or any other religious icon or belief. I have a better understanding of Wade vs. Roe than most liberals or conservatives, many of whom on both sides don't even understand what Constitutional principles were involved. (here's a clue: abortion wasn't it)

Anyone who paints us all with the "racist", "fundie" brush is being ignorant. I've been called a racist on this site because I spoke my mind; no matter that when I was a teacher, 95% of my students were minorities, and that I spent several hours, two or three times a week, doing tutoring in the evening, for any student that needed it, on my own time, merely because they needed it. I doubt many of those who choose to play the race card have done as much in their own community.

"As if Tea Party Republicans have not done enough to undermine the working class in America, now they are going after children."

Sorry, but this is just stupid, and akin to pissing in the wind. One Republican does something idiotic, and the blow-back is applied to all of us.

The Tea Party has done nothing to hurt the "working class in America"; that phrase is just Progressive-speak for "unions", which represent about 11% of the US work force, more than half of whom are on the public payroll; they're not the "working class"; they're a special interest group.

I'm not anti union; I'm a union member(CWA - 20 years and counting); I've supported every strike vote, and prepared ahead of time in case we went out for a month or more.

I only oppose unions in the public sector(other than teacher's unions), because they give the workers too much power to shut down essential services, as they have in several major cities over the years.

I strongly oppose lowering the minimum wage... for anybody. I think it should be made to apply to ALL jobs, some of which are held by illegals. It should apply to wait staff in restaurants, which in many states it does not.

The bottom line: the Tea Party is a movement rooted in Constitutional literalism, and like any movement, there are some extremist factions, but they're a small minority; they're as stupid as the Progressives who support financial restitution for slavery.

Hardy wrote:

"The bottom line: the Tea Party is a movement rooted in Constitutional literalism..."

I would say the Tea Party is a movement rooted *selective* Constitutional literalism. If it is so literal, then why is it against citizenship for people born in the United States? I refer to the "anchor baby" hyperbole that the Tea Partiers are so fond of talking up.

I could go on - for every example of Tea Party "Constitutionalism" you will find another example of Tea Party idiocy and hypocrisy.

"I could go on - for every example of Tea Party "Constitutionalism" you will find another example of Tea Party idiocy and hypocrisy."

Please do... I'm not buyin' it... unless you try to tack everything that anybody from he Tea Party ever said, on the entire movement, but that would be stupid, so I'm sure that's not where you were going... if you did the same thing with Progressives, the result would be the same... no?

nice sharing thanks and keep it up

Thanks for the report Itobin.

Suggestion to reduce minimum wage is shocking and to attach an age to it giving an incentive for businesses to hire people under 20 devalues our concern and responsibility for young people creating an underclass of workers for jobs that do not support a living wage.

This is a political agenda specifically and insidiously designed to not only keep people in poverty, but also to expand the numbers.

It always amazes me how the functionally and intellectually challenged in America have so much say perhaps they are theones with money to influeence govt.

Look at Sarah Palin ,Michelle Bachman,the governor of Wisconsin ,The ridiculous loser Donald trump,etc what the heck.Yet people support them when will it stop. They support people who are wealthy who play to their own feelings of inadequacy and inferiority.

No wonder there are so many problems in America. I guess money and bigotry reign supreme. They build more prisons because the prisons are privatised for the most parts and so will be there to house theklids who steal because they are hungry etc and the cycle goes on and on..

I guess it is easy to drop the minimum wage as many of these teapartiers are those who shipped their businesses abroad which use child labour in dire circumstances and profit from it, No wonder it is easy to reduce the minimum wage. Shame shame shame.

Then again who voted them in ,the people who need government most so perhaps it is karma. The citizenry whose children perhaps need to work most should ensure a government that caters to them with universal health care ,schools that produce results in reading science etc to keep up witht he 21st century,fair wages for work etc.

However some are the same ones chanting Obama care etc and were glad to be rid of democrats etc.

Sometimes too people vote their own insecurities when they have been brainwashed a typical case of a little bit of learning is a dangerous thing.Envying those they feel are better than them calling them elitist etc because they think .

Wow,thanks to the Universe I am a Canadian where people understand what governance is and good one too.

The government also understand that a good safety net healthcare,forward moving minimum wage,welfare system that works etc are helping the people ,the average man who will then see hope and become better and all the people benefit.

Rated up for love of the people especially our kids.

Have a socially conscious day!!

Yes, it is amazing how much Canadians have to say about America especially on these forums.

Without understanding just how our country and its system of government is different than theirs.

And was ever meant to be.

mrspleats

The reason people vote in the very people who will eventually marginalize them is explained in Neomi Klein's book "Shock Doctrine."

It's using disaster capitalism to freighten people into voting for what they think is protection from "big government," when in fact they are voting themselves into the margins of poverty, low wage jobs, and the elmination if social justice policies or protections under the false pretense of preserving their personal freedoms. Deregulation of the banks that contributed to the economic crisis is an excellent example of this theory.

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/the-book

I think Naomi has an inkling of the Truth. I met her at the Vancouver Public library in 2004 when she was a guess speaker for the Little Shuswap First Nations people seeking help in a dispute with the SUNPEAKS ski complex. She spoke eloquently. She fired me up enough to inspire me to both attend and help pay for buses for a 2004 demonstration. The link below is worth a look!

http://www.firstnations.eu/development/secwepemc-skwelkwekwelt.htm

Naomi speaks of the injustice below;

"Let's be clear: this is not about a ski hill. It is about a plan to build a small city in the mountains, a place for urbanites to have a weekend getaway - and for developers to make a killing on real estate. Let's be clear about something else: the massive expansion of the Sun Peaks Resort is an act of violence. British Columbia's First Nation peoples have already been robbed of so much. It is the duty of all Canadians living on stolen land to join in the struggle to defend what is left" 16 July 2003, Naomi Klein, The Olympics Land Grab.

Andy,
I think she has much more than an "inkling."

She has given the current crisis a name and a theory. Whether enough people realize they are being duped is another story.

All we can do is spread the word whenever we can about her theory and hope that people will wake up to what is really happening.

It isn't as much about American being fed up with the current administration as it is voter apathy. In a mayoral race earlier this week in Rochester, NY only 26% of the registered voters even bothered to vote. The man who won did so with 49% of the ballot.

People cry change but then don't do anything to help it come about.

Every time the minimum wage is raised to what the government thinks is a living wage, the prices all go up and citizens are in no better position than they were before and sometimes worse. Where does it all end?

Sherril

The minimum wage now considering inflation and failure to raise it is equal to what those wages could buy in the 1960s. It's a sad state to say the least.

...children under 20???

I never realized that 16, 17, 18, and 19 year olds are "children".

I started working at my father's gas station when I was 13. The years of experience I got taking responsibility, dealing with customers, and handling money were invaluable to my success as an adult.

Also, GOP governors throughout the country have NOT declared war on collective bargaining. They and some of their Democrat counterparts are simply trying to reign in the monopoly power of government bureaucrat unions, who are sucking the life out of the country. BRAVO to them for doing so.

Yes, all the money poured into education has simply taught our children to run machines and computers, and not to think, reason or even read. But, hey, when you are not telling the entire truth - what's the problem?

Child labor laws actually have to do with ages which children can work, not how much they are paid. But another half-truth? And a great deal of children now work for free (or their meals) in family businesses and have since America began. And most 16-20 year olds who are still in school or dependents wouldn't mind having an extra $100 or so a week - and do believe the legislation is aimed at those in certain industries and areas - not across the board but still researching.

Is this the AP?

the problem is that employers will fire older workers to hire children who can be paid less. It makes problems much worse for families.

Its Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think much is left out in this article it does appear.