Obama to make illegal teenagers working on family farms

American Horse Council ^ | 2/3/12

[cripplecreek]

I made $5 an hour and got lunch for working on the farm when minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. If it was particularly hot, the farmer paid us $7 an hour. Its was good money under the table in 1984. Back then, the farmer's pre teen sons were driving the tractors while we baled hay or picked rocks. They were too young for the physical labor but they were already safe machinery operators.

"It is not my intention to do away with government," President Reagan once said. "It is rather, to make it work-work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."

More bad news for U.S. workers, businesses from OSHA

[GeronL]

Can they still do chores or do we need to filll out IRS forms and pay taxes on their “living wage” allowance now?

[MrB]

“Family” and “Farm” are two words that leftists despise.

Both make you less dependent on the collective.

[and so?]

During haying, we were paid $2/hour and fed lunch by the farmer. The minimum wage at that time was $1.15 if working in gas station or super market.

I got a penny a bale (and lunch)...'course, I might be older than you, but it was reasonable at the time...1000 bales a day was the expected minimum...

[cripplecreek]

Farming and manufacturing are being mugged by just about every federal agency there is at the same time.

[trailhkr1]

I was operating the '73 Ford 2000 at age 13 raking hay and pulling the hay wagon. Hated it back then with a passion when all my friends were out playing B ball and meeting girls and swimming at the park.

Now I would pay to be able to do drive that tractor again.

[Cheburashka]

I get the feeling this will be widely ignored.

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Until the DOL starts sending out inspectors to audit farms. In retail 20 years ago the fine was $100 per occurrence, each day counted as a separate occurrence. Don't know what the fine is now. You can run up a $100,000 fine right quick at that rate. You don't keep records? Congratulations, you just donated your farm to the federal government.

This is all bs, but that doesn't mean it won't be enforced. This must be fought NOW.

[Kirkwood]

I don’t understand the title you posted. Can you get the Mod to fix it so it makes sense?

[reg45]

Mangled Headline Syntax alert. I thought it was about Mexicans at first.

So did I. I think the person who wrote that sentance (sic) is functionally illiterate.

As are most recent graduates of Journalism school.

[headsonpikes]

Your Lenin quotation is precisely apt!

Independent farmers are the blood enemy of every socialist regime of the last 100 years.

The State prefers to create its own classes of aspiring courtiers and truckling dependents. Farmers might have sh*t on their shoes.

[ottbmare]

Some of us lobbied, called, and wrote about this extensively last fall. Comments to the DOL closed December 1 so this article is more than a day late and a dollar short.

This does not just apply to tomato farms that might hire migrant workers. The horse industry in the US is a multi-billion-dollar economic engine. Many horse farms and riding stables are operated at on a very narrow margin and much of the labor of handling horses comes from teenage kids who work after school and full time during the summer. The young women are quite knowledgeable and are compensated with money and sometimes with riding privileges. It would be difficult or impossible to hire adults to do this work, with all the expense that entails—social security withholding, unemployment comp, healthcare benefits, mandated breaks and lunchtimes, etc. Most farms and stables don’t have the budget and don’t want to cope with adult personnel issues. With teenagers, they have truly willing workers who are thrilled to be out there grooming the horses or cleaning stalls.

The law would also prevent kids under 18 from working on their grandparents’ farms. Many family farms are owned by a trust rather than directly by parents, so the kids couldn’t even help on a farm that has been in the family for a century. They won’t be allowed to touch milk produced by family cows—can you imagine the stupidity?

And if the kids aren’t allowed to do this work, how will they acquire the skills to become farmers themselves someday? How would they even have the interest?

If anybody thinks this will be widely ignored, let me tell you how closely-regulated today’s farm is. There are state, local, and federal inspectors and agencies harassing the farmer or horseman all the time. Half of a farmer’s time is devoted to compliance issues now. Of course!—because farmers are businesspeople and the government constantly harasses small business owners with hyper-regulation.

[samtheman]

Independent farmers are the blood enemy of every socialist regime of the last 100 years.

And in the early 30's Stalin murdered 7 million of them -- yes, 7 million... that's 7,000,000 -- in the Ukraine.

And the New York Times covered that massacre up.

And got a Pulitzer Prize for its efforts.

[Buckeye McFrog]

My 10th grade civics teacher maintained that child labor laws were nothing more than the work of the unions to keep competition for jobs at bay.

[Realman30]

Can’t work on a farm but they can be gang bangers, shoot people and sell dope as young as nine. All our kids are being pampered to death by society and government. Asinine.

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And as fast and you can say 'Sandra Fluke', any teenager, worth her salt, can obtain an abortion, no question asked.