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"efforts to tighten agricultural child labor laws have repeatedly failed because of opposition from Republicans in Congress and farm lobbying groups. They argue

"efforts to tighten agricultural child labor laws have repeatedly failed because of opposition from Republicans in Congress and farm lobbying groups. They argue that such changes would hurt family farms and make it harder to teach kids about farming." This is the bollocks. I have a farm. Kids have been out helping me since they were about 5 or 6, and around I've never herd of some formal wage system in a family farm for kids. They do it because you're contributing. Having farm labor laws for 'family farms' that go beyond family is utter lies and incredibly repugnant as they are essentially twisting things to allow people to use child labor. As an Australian I dont understand what has happened to the moral compass in USA. Its like while the rural parts say they are a Christian nation, the reality to an outsider like me seems they follow money as their deity more than anything.

pixl97 4y ago
> what has happened to the moral compass in USA. We never had a great moral compass here, we have sold the idea that we do to everyone else though. This said, we seem to have another big push to drag us back to pre-1850s with child labor and company scrip. But this is something that the capital class has always tried. There was never a point in history where they didn't want to effectively attempt to enslave people here, only times in history that they are more or less effective in achieving it.
bigbillheck 4y ago
> I dont understand what has happened to the moral compass in USA. We've never really had one.
notduncansmith 4y ago
(USAn here) As others have mentioned, it’s not really that something “has happened” — the country isn’t a monolith and there have always been folks that kick and scream as they are dragged into the future. The European immigrants that settled those areas (often after violently displacing whoever was already living there) have relied on cheap labor since they arrived. Their influence on the USA’s moral compass is almost as old as the country itself, and includes literally going to war with the rest of the country to preserve slavery. They lost the war but that faction of USA politics never really died out, just shifted bit by bit into its current form.

pixl97 4y ago

> what has happened to the moral compass in USA. We never had a great moral compass here, we have sold the idea that we do to everyone else though. This said, we seem to have another big push to drag us back to pre-1850s with child labor and company scrip. But this is something that the capital class has always tried. There was never a point in history where they didn't want to effectively attempt to enslave people here, only times in history that they are more or less effective in achieving it.

bigbillheck 4y ago

> I dont understand what has happened to the moral compass in USA. We've never really had one.

notduncansmith 4y ago

(USAn here) As others have mentioned, it’s not really that something “has happened” — the country isn’t a monolith and there have always been folks that kick and scream as they are dragged into the future. The European immigrants that settled those areas (often after violently displacing whoever was already living there) have relied on cheap labor since they arrived. Their influence on the USA’s moral compass is almost as old as the country itself, and includes literally going to war with the rest of the country to preserve slavery. They lost the war but that faction of USA politics never really died out, just shifted bit by bit into its current form.