Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 127 posts

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#41

Post by dragonwriter »

eganist wrote: post #31
WillPostForFood wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

16- and 17-year-olds can work and allows them to serve alcohol Teens don't really have smaller hands than adults. This bill is sane. Allowing kids to work for construction is going to improve lives more than blindly pushing everyone regardless of desire or aptitude in college and graduating them with a worthless degree and a half mil in debt. Let teens work in roofing and get some skills that the world actually needs…

16 and 17 year olds have even less of a risk assessment capacity than 18 year olds (worth noting that this faculty fully matures by around 25), but jobs where bad decisions have more impact aren't the place for people new to the workforce to cut their teeth; there's too much risk not just to themselves (which we're disregarding here; people should be fine making whatever stupid decision they want) but to the people a…

> which we're disregarding here; people should be fine making whatever stupid decision they want

The entire reason the concept of “minors” exists is a social judgement that this rule has only limited applicability to people below a certain age.

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#42

Post by BaseballPhysics »

foooobaba wrote: post #15

“Do I want my 16-year-old operating a power saw as a job? No, I don’t“ - then don’t let them? Why do you need to make it illegal for everyone else? Iowa is mostly a rural state, and growing up on a farm you learn to operate power tools when you’re 10, and there are plenty of 16 year olds in Iowa that are more than capable of running a power saw and working on roofs and are proud to do it. Better than sitting around a…

> then don’t let them? Why do you need to make it illegal for everyone else?

Spoken like someone who doesn't understand the history of child labour.

There's an old saying: regulations are written in blood. Unfortunately, it seems some folks have forgotten the history and lessons that brought us to modern labour laws...

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#44

Post by bryanrasmussen »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #19
mikestew wrote: post #2

As I was reading TFA, I tried not to let my cynicism dictate my theory on why these looser child labor restrictions are being pushed so hard lately. But then we get this gem: Supporters, meanwhile, have cheered the legislation as a potential solution to workforce shortages and rising labor costs. Yup, all that talk about "work ethic" is just bullshit. Plus their little hands make it easier to get the coal out.

16- and 17-year-olds can work and allows them to serve alcohol Teens don't really have smaller hands than adults. This bill is sane. Allowing kids to work for construction is going to improve lives more than blindly pushing everyone regardless of desire or aptitude in college and graduating them with a worthless degree and a half mil in debt. Let teens work in roofing and get some skills that the world actually needs…

Since teens are not necessarily fully developed mentally etc. will there be a way to categorize different construction businesses to keep the more dangerous types of work from being open to people who might not think things through.

Just thinking about the places I've worked where people died from dumb decisions, but that's probably overly emotional.

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#45

Post by CuriouslyC »

foooobaba wrote: post #15

“Do I want my 16-year-old operating a power saw as a job? No, I don’t“ - then don’t let them? Why do you need to make it illegal for everyone else? Iowa is mostly a rural state, and growing up on a farm you learn to operate power tools when you’re 10, and there are plenty of 16 year olds in Iowa that are more than capable of running a power saw and working on roofs and are proud to do it. Better than sitting around a…

This is gonna play out the same way women entering the workforce did. It'll depress wages and the end result will be that a lot of families will need to send their kids off to work as soon as they're old enough just to make ends meet.

I'm fine with kids working, in the context of apprenticeships and other places where they're subject to gentler conditions and reduced workload with an emphasis on skill building. Learn to frame, plumb or wire? Sure. Pouring drinks, cleaning/yardwork/etc, no.

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#46

Post by zamalek »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #19
mikestew wrote: post #2

As I was reading TFA, I tried not to let my cynicism dictate my theory on why these looser child labor restrictions are being pushed so hard lately. But then we get this gem: Supporters, meanwhile, have cheered the legislation as a potential solution to workforce shortages and rising labor costs. Yup, all that talk about "work ethic" is just bullshit. Plus their little hands make it easier to get the coal out.

16- and 17-year-olds can work and allows them to serve alcohol Teens don't really have smaller hands than adults. This bill is sane. Allowing kids to work for construction is going to improve lives more than blindly pushing everyone regardless of desire or aptitude in college and graduating them with a worthless degree and a half mil in debt. Let teens work in roofing and get some skills that the world actually needs…

> parent has granted permission for the work

The bill itself touches lightly on the problem: parents. One massive example of a potential problem: does the bill protect education at all? The kids learning skills that can make them money is really a fringe benefit when you consider how much money their parents can make. Win, win, for all!

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#47

Post by adbachman »

dilippkumar wrote: post #29

Any demographers in here? I wonder if this has anything to do with the baby boomer generation all hitting retirement around now, and the incoming cohort being smaller than the retiring cohort.

Could be that, could be restaurants and construction companies looking for a population that will settle for minimum wage.

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#48

Post by hindsightbias »

mikestew wrote: post #2

As I was reading TFA, I tried not to let my cynicism dictate my theory on why these looser child labor restrictions are being pushed so hard lately. But then we get this gem: Supporters, meanwhile, have cheered the legislation as a potential solution to workforce shortages and rising labor costs. Yup, all that talk about "work ethic" is just bullshit. Plus their little hands make it easier to get the coal out.

We don't need to wait around for robots if kids can do all that.

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#49

Post by ejb999 »

I worked in heavy construction and roofing from 14 until I went to college - helped paid for quite a bit of it - I don't see a problem here. Nobody is forced to work, and you need to parents permission.

Washington post thinks it is OK that 12 year olds, are old enough to consent to sex change operations, without their parents permission, but a 17 year old doing hard work with their parents permission is not OK?

Re: Iowa governor will sign bill rolling back labor protections for children

#50

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #19
mikestew wrote: post #2

As I was reading TFA, I tried not to let my cynicism dictate my theory on why these looser child labor restrictions are being pushed so hard lately. But then we get this gem: Supporters, meanwhile, have cheered the legislation as a potential solution to workforce shortages and rising labor costs. Yup, all that talk about "work ethic" is just bullshit. Plus their little hands make it easier to get the coal out.

16- and 17-year-olds can work and allows them to serve alcohol Teens don't really have smaller hands than adults. This bill is sane. Allowing kids to work for construction is going to improve lives more than blindly pushing everyone regardless of desire or aptitude in college and graduating them with a worthless degree and a half mil in debt. Let teens work in roofing and get some skills that the world actually needs…

You probably don't want to use roofing as an example, it's one of the most dangerous jobs out there. I think not wanting to build an economy on piles of shattered 16-17 year old bodies.
Post reply on HN