The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land. Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.”Frank Barry and I have a mutual friend (that teaches at App) whose (homeschooled) teenage sons run a portion of the family farm as an independent business, growing things and selling them at the Watauga Farmer's Market. Apparently that will now be illegal. The thought that a 15-year old kid might know how to manage money, how to organize productive activity, and how to take responsibility, I can see how that might be threatening to a federal bureaucrat.
The regulation also says that groups like 4-H and FFA can no longer offer farm safety certification, replacing them with a Federal government course. I can just imagine the bureaucrats discussing the issue:
"Hmm, let's see, who should we trust to teach farm safety? A long-time farmer passionate enough to volunteer his time teaching children about farming, who's usually known the students for years, and who's children or grandchildren's lives may depend on what they learn? Nah, we need a bureaucrat who works in an office with no accountability to any of the students, that's the ticket. After all, if they take 4-H classes we don't get paid, and that's what really matters, right?Linked at Instapundit, who comments:
I think the Labor Department would rather you hire illegal immigrants to do that work./rant
I'll agree, this is really, really, dumb.
ReplyDeleteWhile I see the need for government regulation in our modern so-huge-its-impossible-to-conceive-of economy, there is no need for the government to intrude on a market operating on a scale small enough to remain personally accountable to all its stakeholders. While the line could easily be blurred between markets that do or do not meet those criteria, legislators should at least make an effort to try. Giant agribusiness? Needs regulation. Family farms? Don't.
Daniel
and how do they plan to enforce this? I'm sorry but I don't think my brother is going to stop having his kids help him run the farm, which is the only way it is really profitable. If he had to pay someone labor costs to do the tasks his kids help with, there would be no profit!
ReplyDelete--Denise