Throughout high school and college, I took multiple history classes. Those classes included world history, American history, and even a few courses in ancient history. I won’t say history was ever my best class, but I’ve always had a certain affinity for it. I often find it enlightening and profound to see how our world came to be and how we got to where we are now.
Over the course of those studies, I often found hope and solace in knowing that certain issues within some societies had been resolved for the most part. History is often messy with mishaps and setbacks, but there’s a general trend towards progress and I found that encouraging.
Now, having followed the news for these past few years, I’m not nearly as encouraged anymore. Because lately, it seems like there’s a growing trend towards undoing some of the progress we made, even if it means making vulnerable, desperate people suffer. It’s bad enough that countries like America have taken a step backwards with respect to abortion rights, but now the same country that I love is taking it even further.
This time, it has to do with child labor laws. And believe me, I wish I was joking. I wish this were an elaborate story from The Onion. But sadly, it’s all too real.
In multiple states, mostly in the mid-west and south, lawmakers have effectively rolled back decades-old child labor laws to make it easier for companies to hire workers as young as 14-years-old. And in some industries, namely those involving farm work, kids as young as 12-years-old can legally work.
Now, if you have even a shred of compassion, empathy, and perspective, take a step back and think about this. Decades ago, we collectively decided that making children work in mines and factories was generally a bad thing. You don’t have to look far to find old, grainy photos of sad, broken children working in coal mines.
You don’t have to make bold assumptions about how these kids ended up having to work in such terrible conditions or why a company or business would employ them. They were desperate. They needed to do something to feed themselves or the rest of their families.
It wasn’t enough for kids to just help out around the house. They actually had to go out into dirty, dangerous mines or factories to earn what was likely piss-poor wages. And since they were kids, they weren’t as inclined to strike or organize. The only ones who benefitted from this were the employers, who were never going to pass up an opportunity to exploit cheap labor.
That’s why laws were necessary in the first place. History, as well as a basic understanding of power dynamics, has proven time and again that no organization gives up a profitable endeavor willingly. It took a serious movement of people who were appalled and disgusted by such practices to make these companies stop. And even when the laws were passed, some still tried to employ children illegally. Many still do, some of which include well-known American brands.
But now we’ve somehow found ourselves at a point where rolling back those laws is somehow viable? And those elected into public office are willingly going through with it?
Again, just take a moment to imagine this from the perspective of a kid. I remember being 12. I wasn’t even allowed to rent R-rated movies. And the most laborious task I could imagine involved doing yardwork with my parents over the course of a single afternoon. The idea of actually having to go to work while still going to school sounds like a goddamn nightmare.
Even when I was 15, it sounds downright soul-crushing. I was already navigating the rigors of high school. I was also going through the psychological and bodily horror that was puberty. The idea of having to work a job at the same time sounds downright cruel.
I understand that my childhood and circumstances are different than most. I imagine that kids from desperately poor families with limited opportunities might find such work unavoidable. But that’s exactly what makes these efforts by lawmakers so disturbing.
They’re essentially sending the message to employers, and society as a whole, that it’s perfectly fine to exploit desperate people and their children. It doesn’t matter if it means robbing a child of an opportunity to be a child and not get seriously hurt in a typical work environment. Their labor means more profits for the company and that’s all the justification we needed?
I’m no radical anti-capitalist, but even I call bullshit. If a company or business can only be profitable by exploiting the labor of children and desperate workers, then their business model sucks. And at the very least, our laws should not go out of their way to accommodate such models.
If all this weren’t bad enough (and it’s still very bad on so many levels), what makes it even worse is that those in favor of passing these laws are often conservative republicans. Remember, these are the same people who go all Helen Lovejoy and demand that we think of the children every time a drag queen dares to read them story. They’re also the same political wing who thinks a 10-year-old should be forced to give birth to a child that resulted from rape.
Again, I wish I was making this up. These policies, and the hypocrisy surrounding them, read like plots by supervillains. The only difference is that there are no costumed superheroes in this world who will stand to oppose them.
These despicable ghouls wearing human flesh have to know on some levels that what they’re doing will result in kids suffering, toiling, and being exploited by organizations whose only interest involves raising profits. They simply don’t care, mostly because they know their kids will likely never have to work jobs like that.
There’s a lot more I can say about the people pushing for and advocating these laws. But there’s only so much profanity and vulgarity I’m comfortable including in this rant. Maybe in a different time and under different circumstances, this wouldn’t bother me as much. I may not have kids of my own yet, but I have multiple nieces and nephews now. The idea of them growing up in a world where they could be employed and exploited at a young age makes me sick to my stomach.
Going back to my points about history, I’ll just remind everyone that we’ve been down this road before. We decided over 100 years ago that child labor is generally a bad thing for kids, families, and civilized society. We fought that battle for years and eventually won. Let’s not fight it again. Kids already have it hard enough. Let’s not make it worse for them.
Given the current state of the world, it’s literally the least we can do for them.
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