(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . If It's Not a Fetus They Don't Care [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-05-04 Child labor laws were passed, and authorized by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, to deter the predatory behavior of employers toward young, vulnerable individuals like these boys working in Pennsylvania coal mines. (Photo from Iowa Capital Dispatch website by Lewis Hine/Records of the National Child Labor Committee, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs) If the Republican Party doesn’t care about children being gunned down in their classrooms, why would you think they care about their welfare in any other aspect of their lives? Another example of the GOP’s “Once you’re out of the womb you’re on your own” approach to governing can be seen as various Republican-controlled states advance efforts to weaken their child labor laws. And even more disturbing is how that movement is being pushed by still another conservative group where rich folks give tons of money to the cause of improving their lot by making life worse for the poor and middle class. Once again, the war of the rich against the rest of us rears its ugly head. Here’s what’s been going on in some states: *In Arkansas, a new law was approved that eliminates work permits and age verification for workers younger than 16. *In Iowa, a bill is making its way through the legislature that would allow children to work later hours and to work some jobs for which they are currently prohibited. *Minnesota and Ohio have introduced proposals this year allowing teens to work more hours or in more dangerous occupations, such as construction. *A bill in Georgia would prohibit the state government from requiring a minor to obtain a work permit. Why does the Republican Party see this as a worthwhile goal? How does it fit into its overall pro-rich, anti-poor-and-middle-class agenda? We’ll get to that later, but for now let’s follow the money as explained in a very informative article in The Washington Post. The driving force behind the movement to relax laws preventing children from working long hours in dangerous conditions is coming from the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank, and its lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, the Post reported. This isn’t the only iron the FGA has in the fire. In the past it’s worked to change policy at the state level with goals such as restricting access to anti-poverty programs and blocking Medicaid expansion. I see a trend here. Founded in 2011, it’s grown to the point where in 2020 it reported $10.6 million in revenue, with 70 percent of that coming from 14 conservative groups, the Post reported. Think about this: Groups like this don’t just lobby for the results they want. They actually write proposed laws and pass them on to interested lawmakers, then follow up by providing things like research and lobbying support to push proposals through the process. As the Post said: “FGA is one of several conservative groups that have long taken aim at all manner of government regulations or social safety net programs.” This is another case where, as has been stated her in the past, the problem with the rich isn’t that they’re rich, it’s that they use their money to support efforts that would increase their wealth at the expense of the poor and middle class. Let’s look at the world into which these new lax standards are being established. Earlier this year, the White House announced a crackdown on child labor violations. The Labor Department has seen a 69 percent increase in minors employed in violation of federal law since 2018. Between 2018 and 2022, federal regulators opened cases for 4,144 child labor violations covering 15,462 youth workers, according to federal data, the Post reported. So, child labor issues are a real problem, and no group is more exposed than immigrant children. The Post said that about 15 percent of these children are released from federal custody to distant relatives or nonrelative sponsors, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Experts say that makes them more vulnerable to labor trafficking. Why would a responsible business want to put children to work in dangerous jobs? The Post noted that some employers struggling with a tightening labor market and inflation have turned to younger workers, as opposed to increasing wages and benefits to attract older applicants. Of course. A party devoted to destroying unions is more than happy to help its donors from the business community find another way to screw over their workers. Just like they want to screw over the poor by going after our social safety net. Remember, for everything the GOP does, it has only two goals: more power and money for themselves and more money for their rich donors, no matter who suffers in the process. So what if it means endangering kids. Less regulation costs less. That’s the “small government” model they yearn for, a way to spend less and in turn collect less taxes from their wealthy benefactors. Republicans are trying to frame this as a “parental rights” issue. In technical terms, that’s bullshit. Child labor laws came about to protect children. Of course, parents can raise their children as they wish, but that has limits. Why do we set a minimum age to drive? Why can’t a kid just drive whenever his parents think he’s ready? Why do we have a legal drinking age? Why can’t parents say when they can go out on a bender? Why can’t parents pimp out their daughter as a prostitute? Or sell pornographic photos of their adolescent son? It’s their children, after all. Children shouldn’t be working in dangerous jobs on assembly lines, construction projects, meat-packing plants, and places like that. Their focus should be on going to school and just being kids. If they work a simple job on the side to get some spending money and learn some responsibility, that’s fine. You can read the Post’s article here. This is all part of the ongoing Republicans con game. They’ve taken a legitimate issue of parental rights and turned it into another front in the culture war they’re pushing to try to divide us and get people who don’t benefit from their policies to vote for them. These kids are just pawns in the game. The parents are just the stooges who they see as too dumb to figure out what’s going on. The ultrarich are sitting in their ivory towers pulling the strings like puppet masters, trying to manipulate us into doing their bidding to their benefit and our expense. Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview that his state’s law was “a solution looking for a problem.” It’s really a non-solution emblematic of a problem. A problem we aren’t going to solve until we wake up and realize who’s “fertilizing” all these grass roots movements pushing conservative causes and what their motives are. *** Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writing on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/4/2167454/-If-It-s-Not-a-Fetus-They-Don-t-Care Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/