Posted on 12/02/2011 11:32:06 AM PST by traumer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) From tending cattle to driving tractors or ATVs, 15-year-old Taylor Muller and her three younger brothers have always done what they could to help the family's farming business.
"Most kids my age don't even have jobs," said Taylor, who assists her father at one southwest Oklahoma farm and her grandparents at another. "We already know what hard work is."
Many other young kids won't be allowed to do those kinds of chores if the U.S. Labor Department approves new rules on children working in agriculture. While the Mullers would likely be exempt because it's a family business, the proposed rules would prohibit most children under age 16 from driving tractors, using power equipment, working with livestock in certain circumstances and doing work at heights over 6 feet.
Federal officials say the rules are needed because farming is one of the nation's most dangerous occupations, but many farmers say children learn important life lessons and might develop an interest in agriculture by working on farms or ranches.
Muller's dad, Matt, says he worries about what the new rules might mean for the future of farming. "It's very disheartening to me," he said. "Farming is not just a business. It's a way of life."
Michael Hancock, the assistant administrator for policy at the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division, said the rules covering child farm workers haven't been updated in more than 40 years and that changes are needed to address the dangers of working with tractors and other large farm machines. Farming, he said, is "the single-most hazardous occupation, as measured by fatalities, for children."
Nearly 29 out of every 100,000 farm workers in the U.S. die on the job, according to the National Safety Council.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
SEIU needs those jobs for union dues.
The Feds don't care about your way of life. In fact, they probably actively oppose it.
Nanny nation
Those jobs are needed for illegals, who vote for Democrats. Why keep them available to hard-working Americans, who are sure to grow up and oppose the socialist plans of the current White House? I approve of protecting children, but Big Government is a far greater danger than farm work. Let's protect the next generation from the Obama Regime, not from a clean way of life.
Naw.....they just want to put them into the employment statistics before the election.
“Look, we created 600,000 farm jobs!” Doesn’t matter that the kids were already working.
“Those jobs are needed for illegals, who vote for Democrats.”
THAT IS THE TRUTH, PERIOD.
This administration, or Progressives in general, couldn’t give a rat’s arse whether your children are safe, or not.
All they want is power.
Growing Up Absurd.
They will lobby to make the cost of farming too high for any smaller.family run operation. On top of that we will end up importing more food from overseas where there are no regulations regarding minors working on farms.
Some of Obama's decisions make him look stupid, and others make him look evil. The bottom line is that he wants power, he wants to destroy America, freedom, and Christianity, and he is evil, but we're luck in the sense that he's too stupid to effectively inflict as much damage as he hopes to cause. He definitely wants power, and there are no redeeming qualities in his motivation to gain that power.
Government NEVER wants what is best for individuals—it is the leviathan-—government always wants complete control over all aspects of human activities. It is why we have a “limited” government. (We are supposed to have one). All political philosophy knows about the nature of government—to control and make slaves of all—led by a few “elites” who know better.
Destroying the family unit is what this bill is all about—destroying parents ability to direct the raising of their children—especially with religious and conservative values. What children do (or don’t do) forms their worldview. Government wants to eliminate perseverance and the Protestant Work Ethic which created the individualism and prosperity of America. No Abe Lincoln’s wanted!!!! in a Marxist society.
We need government OUT of our lives.....and keep strangers from raising children. It was NEVER in the realm of government to intervene in families-—it is all about PROTECTING the rights of biological parents=== except in Marxists societies where daycare was invented and there is no parental decisions without government. Elite homosexuals know what your children should learn so they form children with the proper worldview which is Atheism/paganism/occultism and sloth (welfare state).
I tell every lazy, TV/game addicted kid I meet about my education working on farms from 9 years old, driving tractors (1930's single piston hand start John Deer) with tandem over stacked hay wagons up and down hills plus backing them up to a barn, through high school (my 5 to 9 job on a dairy farm making $2/hr), and up through college graduation.
I am so, so amazed and sickened by the inability of kids today to do anything practical in their daily lives. If Google doesn't do it for them, they're paralyzed. Thank God for the Boy Scouts and FFA, but not enough boys, through their dads or family friend, get involved. My friend's 13 year old boy recently watched me put in a ceiling fan and faucet at their house and you'd think he just saw Houdini escape from a straight jacket inside a trunk wrapped in chains and dumped into the Hudson river covered in ice. I am VERY concerned about this generation of incompetent weenies!
As if the NEA and PC public schools haven't done enough damage to our progeny, along comes BHO's marxists to put a stake in the heart of the last know area where kids can learn a very high level of responsibility and how to get things done, while building their mind, body, bank account, and appreciation for God's gift of life.
At age 14, I got my first summer job. I cleaned out irrigation ditches and mended fence along side Mexican laborers on a mid sized farm in Arizona. It helped me mature and reinforce a work ethic taught me by my Dad. As fewer young people get this sort of an upbringing our country is poorer.
You are SO right
Not to attack farmers, but many ignore the laws against hiring illegals so I’m guessing that they will simply ignore these as well.
Unbelievable.
When we were kids, farm work was all there was. Cleaning stalls, discing and mowing, putting up hay, stringing barbed wire. That's where you got your work ethic (and your muscles) for not a lot of pay. But it was a job. Hell, the hay mound was often 20 ft. or more high and we'd create ornate steps with the bales to get to the top.
And we wonder why we've got so many whiny zombie OWS types these days.
Sloppy reporting once again by the AP.
The Muller kids would be able to work on their family farm, within the new guidelines. However, they would be forbidden to work on their grandparents farm. Now tell me why they did that?
Obama and his Communists cloaked in Democrat cloth - out to destroy the fabric of the country.
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