5 ms·

In Germany it's legal to start working the moment you leave the compulsory 9 years of Education, where you are 15 or 16. Granted, you are then in the apprentice

In Germany it's legal to start working the moment you leave the compulsory 9 years of Education, where you are 15 or 16. Granted, you are then in the apprenticeship-system where half of the time you have to visit an apprenticeship school and the other half of the time you learn a trade, but noone bats an eye.

watwut 3y ago
15-18 years old work has special regulations applied to it. There are protections and special regulations about their physical and mental health in place.
- exar0815 3y ago
  This is true, but as a lot of those apprenticeships happen in small companies (most large companies don't allow any apprentices below 18 for that reason) most of those protections are... tenous at best.
screwturner68 3y ago
You work as an apprentice and part of a union -you are actually learning a trade. These are not union jobs so the wages are very low, you have no benefits (likely no health insurance or vacation) and they are strictly labor positions where it's cheaper to use a 15 year old than it is to rent a backhoe.
Supermancho 3y ago
This is true of lots of places in the world. US citizens have been indoctrinated to believe the opportunity to abuse is attractive enough that more complex protections, for younger adults, is a political danger zone. God forbid you change something and some abuse appears on the news. Pointing at tradition and saying "I didn't change anything, it must be another bad guy" is the go-to tool for maintaining the status quo in politics. The US position is self-sustaining and oversimplified, like many subjects across the world.
triceratops 3y ago
They're still in education - trade education, but education nonetheless. So not really the same thing as working in a meatpacking plant.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  What is big deal about meat packing? I could see problems with being part of butchering process with knifes and so on. Or maybe dangerous machine. But in general outside those roles? Let's say putting meat in plastic boxes or building pallets?
  - dmreedy 3y ago
    There is in fact a whole, and very famous, book about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle It is as much a real object of specific concern as it is shorthand for "oppressive wage slavery in poor conditions" in the general sense.
  - throw9away6 3y ago
    Poor regulations in all those industries because they operate mostly in migrant labor and everyone looks the other way

watwut 3y ago

15-18 years old work has special regulations applied to it. There are protections and special regulations about their physical and mental health in place.

exar0815 3y ago
This is true, but as a lot of those apprenticeships happen in small companies (most large companies don't allow any apprentices below 18 for that reason) most of those protections are... tenous at best.

screwturner68 3y ago

You work as an apprentice and part of a union -you are actually learning a trade. These are not union jobs so the wages are very low, you have no benefits (likely no health insurance or vacation) and they are strictly labor positions where it's cheaper to use a 15 year old than it is to rent a backhoe.

Supermancho 3y ago

This is true of lots of places in the world. US citizens have been indoctrinated to believe the opportunity to abuse is attractive enough that more complex protections, for younger adults, is a political danger zone. God forbid you change something and some abuse appears on the news. Pointing at tradition and saying "I didn't change anything, it must be another bad guy" is the go-to tool for maintaining the status quo in politics. The US position is self-sustaining and oversimplified, like many subjects across the world.

triceratops 3y ago

They're still in education - trade education, but education nonetheless. So not really the same thing as working in a meatpacking plant.

Ekaros 3y ago
What is big deal about meat packing? I could see problems with being part of butchering process with knifes and so on. Or maybe dangerous machine. But in general outside those roles? Let's say putting meat in plastic boxes or building pallets?
- dmreedy 3y ago
  There is in fact a whole, and very famous, book about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle It is as much a real object of specific concern as it is shorthand for "oppressive wage slavery in poor conditions" in the general sense.
- throw9away6 3y ago
  Poor regulations in all those industries because they operate mostly in migrant labor and everyone looks the other way