Missouri, US: Bring back child labor - WTF?!?!?!

[Ronja]

Somebody please, please tell me this is an elaborate hoax, a faked website - anything! (emphasis mine)

This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/BTS_Web ... ID=4124271

I feel physically sick.

[Azathoth]

Obviously not enough illegals there. They have to get out of paying someone a living wage somehow

[Ian]

That's a backwards step, but I wouldn't worry about seeing parents pull their pre-adolescent kids out of school and put them to work in corn fields or coal mines. Just because a law might exist doesn't mean that you're going to see the envelope pushed. There are probably a bunch of states that still have 200-year old anti-sodomy laws that are never enforced.

[Twoflower]

Michigan still has an anti-sodomy law and a law that makes it illegal to curse in front of women and children and a law making it illegal for women to get their hair cut without permission from their husband or father. None of them are really enforced so I wouldn't worry about it.

[maiforpeace]

Somebody please, please tell me this is an elaborate hoax, a faked website - anything! (emphasis mine)

This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/BTS_Web ... ID=4124271

I feel physically sick.

Brought to you by the honorable Jane Cunningham.

Ronja, don't bother reading through bills and proposals that many Republicans try to pass if you don't want to get sick, because you will get sick all the time then.

[Atheist-Lite]

A race to the bottom of international human rights standards between the US and China?

[laklak]

I like to try to figure out why the law was passed in the first place. This is a pretty funny site:


http://www.dumblaws.com/

In Florida it is illegal for women to skydive on a Sunday, it's illegal to have sex with a porcupine, and if an elephant is tied to a parking meter the parking fee must be paid. In Georgia donkeys may not be kept in a bathtub. Alabama prohibits driving a motor vehicle while blindfolded and in Lee County you can't sell peanuts after 6:00 PM on Wednesdays. It is also illegal to open an umbrella in the street. In North Carolina, if an unmarried couple register as married at a hotel, they're considered legally married.

Least folks think dumb laws are only in the South, In New Jersey it is illegal to slurp soup, for a man to knit during fishing season, to frown at a police officer, and you may not have personalized license plates if you've been convicted of drunk driving. In New York, citizens may not greet each other by "putting one's thumb to the nose and wiggling the fingers" and slippers may not be worn after 10:00 PM. In Alaska it is illegal to push a moose out of a moving airplane or to wake a sleeping bear to take it's picture.

I particularly like the last one. WTF happened that they had to make a law about waking a sleeping bear?

[Warren Dew]

Ronja, in the U.S. people introduce all sorts of bills that they don't intend to pass. Worry about it if it passes.

Still,

It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

So if a kid is eating at a restaurant, he's presumed to be working there? That seems a bit extreme.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/BTS_Web ... sionType=R

[sandinista]

Michigan still has an anti-sodomy law and a law that makes it illegal to curse in front of women and children and a law making it illegal for women to get their hair cut without permission from their husband or father. None of them are really enforced so I wouldn't worry about it.

So, if these laws aren't enforced, why do they exist? As long as they are considered laws they should be worried about.

[Seth]

Somebody please, please tell me this is an elaborate hoax, a faked website - anything! (emphasis mine)

This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/BTS_Web ... ID=4124271

I feel physically sick.

Brought to you by the honorable Jane Cunningham.

Ronja, don't bother reading through bills and proposals that many Republicans try to pass if you don't want to get sick, because you will get sick all the time then.

You might want to swallow your bile and read through this one, because it is primarily aimed at protecting child performers and actors and at eliminating a bunch of bureaucracy regarding work permits. It also repeals SOME prohibitions on where children can work, which will allow them, for example, to hold a job cleaning motel rooms, changing sheets, and cleaning toilets, which is no different than cleaning toilets, changing sheets or vacuuming at home, now is it? It allows young people to make pocket money working at non-hazardous jobs without having to suffer through a massive "work permit" bureaucracy. No substantive workplace safety laws have been repealed.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Michigan still has an anti-sodomy law and a law that makes it illegal to curse in front of women and children and a law making it illegal for women to get their hair cut without permission from their husband or father. None of them are really enforced so I wouldn't worry about it.

So, if these laws aren't enforced, why do they exist? As long as they are considered laws they should be worried about.

Bills get passed so the author can have bragging rights. It's not at all uncommon for bills to be passed with no means of enforcement, funding, etc. It's a political game.

[Warren Dew]

You might want to swallow your bile and read through this one, because it is primarily aimed at protecting child performers and actors and at eliminating a bunch of bureaucracy regarding work permits.

Thanks for pointing that out, Seth. Yes, the full bill does give a rather different impression than the summary; the parents are still required to be present at all times in the case of child performers, for example.

Bills get passed so the author can have bragging rights. It's not at all uncommon for bills to be passed with no means of enforcement, funding, etc. It's a political game.

Also, it's extremely rare that any law gets repealed. This is probably one of the reasons why the Tea Party advocates having expiration dates on all laws.

[Ronja]

Michigan still has an anti-sodomy law and a law that makes it illegal to curse in front of women and children and a law making it illegal for women to get their hair cut without permission from their husband or father. None of them are really enforced so I wouldn't worry about it.

In Florida it is illegal for women to skydive on a Sunday, it's illegal to have sex with a porcupine, and if an elephant is tied to a parking meter the parking fee must be paid. In Georgia donkeys may not be kept in a bathtub. Alabama prohibits driving a motor vehicle while blindfolded and in Lee County you can't sell peanuts after 6:00 PM on Wednesdays. It is also illegal to open an umbrella in the street. In North Carolina, if an unmarried couple register as married at a hotel, they're considered legally married.

Least folks think dumb laws are only in the South, In New Jersey it is illegal to slurp soup, for a man to knit during fishing season, to frown at a police officer, and you may not have personalized license plates if you've been convicted of drunk driving. In New York, citizens may not greet each other by "putting one's thumb to the nose and wiggling the fingers" and slippers may not be worn after 10:00 PM. In Alaska it is illegal to push a moose out of a moving airplane or to wake a sleeping bear to take it's picture.

I particularly like the last one. WTF happened that they had to make a law about waking a sleeping bear?

So, if these laws aren't enforced, why do they exist? As long as they are considered laws they should be worried about.

Also, and from my POV more importantly (and this is likely to come across as quaint) what about respect for the law in general? If there are laws that a clearly ridiculous, which are not cleaned off the books, and if politicians try to pass new laws that are idiotic and/or have no chance of passing, what happens to the general public's respect for any laws?

As I was only 5 when I left the US, I guess my thinking and feelings about laws and legislators is based on the old Scandinavian principle "Land skall med lag byggas" ("The land shall with law be built"), which AFAIU means that everything people do - especially those in power - must be lawful. And that laws must be just and as fair as is humanly possible. And that following the spirit of the law is required just as much as (if not more than) following the letter.

I feel ashamed to giggle when I read about these silly / outdated laws - to me it is the equivalent of laughing at how a disabled person moves or talks. And I grow more sad than giggly reading them.

Is it just that I am a total dinosaur - too old and too serious?

[Atheist-Lite]

The only laws I respect are physical ones. Manmade laws are guidelines and can safely be disregarded altogther when no one is looking.