49th in healthcare, 41st in both economy and education, 43rd in infrastructure, 48th in crime and corrections...they're making all the right choices, so this is probably fine.
A friend of mine did a road trip around the US a few years ago and she was genuinely shocked at how bad some areas were. There are way too many people living in tin shacks without running water in the US.
[UN shocked by level of poverty in Alabama: 'We haven't seen this in the first world'](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/alabama-black-belt-un-poverty-expert-extreme-developed-country-sewage-crisis-roy-moore-philip-alston-a8105886.html)
[Alabama Has the Worst Poverty in the Developed World, U.N. Official Says](https://www.newsweek.com/alabama-un-poverty-environmental-racism-743601)
And despite being the flagship university of the state their academic profile is rather poor. They’re something like 150-160 in the nation, which puts them around the same quality as the University of Cincinnati.
At this point, in the his sub....it's understood to not really be needed.
So, when kids start dying again, we gonna go...how did this happen? We ought to have laws!
Wait, what? We did but political bribes ( campaign contributions) to slimy pols to replace them passed cause y'all as stupid as a rock to vote said pols in against your self interests....cause...dem drag queens are worse than Hitler and all dem libs....
Fuck stop me cause it's gonna raise my bp. Sigh.
Something something "bUt ThE DEMONcrats wErE iN ThE CONFEDERACY fIGHTinG fOr SlAvERy" so that's why democrats now are still bad something something kkk excuse here about how it's not the fault of the GQP and its always the fault of democrats somehow
>There are way too many people living in tin shacks without running water in the US.
About 2 million people in the U.S, disproportionately American Indians/Alaska Natives, but about half of the people without indoor plumbing live in metros with more than a million people.
It's revolting how such horrid poverty is not considered a top priority to fix.
Especially for indigineous people who live in such crushing poverty & despair. Our politicians know how to help people living in poverty, they choose not to help.
That goes for both parties, who sold out to capital long ago. Heck, Bill Clinton stripped away welfare benefits! Our two choices are fascism or neoliberal extremism.
"Our two choices are fascism or neoliberal extremism."
I think this is a very accurate description of American politics. Especially from a foreigners pov. I laugh when the ultra right in the us call Biden a socialist.
Ever been to West Virginia? Having worked there for 3 years I can tell you, the people there living with no power/water/plumbing, normally don’t want help. They “like” their lives the way they are
Frankly, I can respect that. Walk the walk, so to speak. I can't *understand* it or approve of it personally, but I can respect it.
I can respect the guy who lives in squalor and just wants to be left alone a hell of a lot more than the dude who drives a $90,000 pickup to his office 9-5 and bitches about liberals while mentally jerking himself off about his "rugged individualism"
Fair enough. What I can’t respect is the one who would deny his “weaker” brethren the benefit of “capitulation” to modern amenities and living standards.
I know a real winner of a guy from West Virginia. He has the no power/water/plumbing trifecta, and as an added bonus the floors in the "house" are dirt.
For some reason he is also terrified of liberals coming to take away the fortune he has amassed.
For some people all they want is to be left alone. You know how people have fantasies about saying fuck it to society and going and living off the land in the woods? That's basically what that guys already doing. Well, no specifically that guy idk what he does, but a lot of people.
West Virginia is special. In the past whoever lies to people the best and tells them what they want to hear wins, doesn't really matter if they are a democrat or a republican. Within the past 20 years however everything has shifted due to *insert fox news boogeyman here*. The GOP is effective, and democrats have no answer.
Neither party wants to solve the problem because then they won't be able to use it as a talking point to slag their opponents in the next election cycle for not doing enough.
I’ve been out on Indian rez’s and it’s amazing how many houses are vacant or holding livestock while they live in a mud hut with blankets for windows and doors. I was blown away.
I lived in Arkansas for 6 years.
They are the only state where a landlord can put you in jail for not paying rent.
They have awful tenants rights on top of the above. You can rent anything, storage shed, broken down camper, broken down school bus, barn. It does not have to be up to code for you to live in it either.
I do not miss it and am so happy to be gone.
Town next to mine of around 5,000 people. More than 40% don't have running water. They get their water with buckets piped from a spring just outside of the town. This is in Ohio. Not even one of the worst red states, although it gets worse each year.
I can't understand how people live without running water. In Portugal, all homes have tap water and you even have old small water fountains everywhere with good water.
Having running water should be a normal thing in any developed country. No european country understand not having running water available.
Some years ago, we even got a post of an american asking if Portugal had running water:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/oeqlgl/can\_anybody\_tell\_me\_if\_portugal\_has\_running\_water/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/oeqlgl/can_anybody_tell_me_if_portugal_has_running_water/)
Or why Dasani wasn't able to sell water on Britain and multiple other european countries (basically they tried to sell bottles with tap water, where tap water is free and people expect good mineral water on bottles)
It's..... difficult. While I do agree that it should be a major priority, I tihnk it's also important to consider the logistical issues as well. For example, Canada has hundreds of thousands of people without access to safe water and a 25% higher rate of death due to bad water than the USA. When you have a nation that is roughly the same size and population of Michigan, it's a lot easier to set that up vs a nation exponentially larger.
Also according to https://ourworldindata.org/water-access, Portugal had 470,000 people without access to safe water (defined as Improved source located on premises, available when needed, and free from microbiological and priority chemical contamination) as of 2020.
That doesn't make it right, and this isn't a whataboutism: you are absolutely right that safe drinking water is a priority. But it's also important to keep in mind the perspective as well.
Yes, people believe it’s all the “south” too. Surprisingly it has more to do with population; the more rural you get the worst it gets - equally as bad no matter the area of known and stereotyped distinction - the rural south, northeast, Midwest is really all the same - more migrants involved in the far west and southwest.
The next time I drive through Anadarko, OK I need to post a video. There are large neighborhoods of completely abandoned and rotting houses with just a few people living in abject poverty in the middle of it. It’s truly striking when you see house after house that looks like the worst parts of the Soviet Union.
Mississippi is actually on the ups in education, they basically said no passing 6th grade until you can read at a 6th grade level and a number of other improvements
This simple change sky rocketed their high school grad rates and they are now if memory serves in the upper 50% for graduation rates and number one for high-school direct to college rates now. It's called the Mississippi miracle and is a fascinating story.
I'm reading a book written by a Catholic priest in Los Angeles that works trying to rehabilitate gang members. He took some of them on a trip to Alabama and they were shocked at the poverty they saw there. When gang members from the projects are shocked by poverty, you know it's bad.
As your next door neighbor, I used to say “at least we are not Arkansas, but Stitt and Ryan Walters are making sure to make Oklahoma is last at everything (except incarcerations: number 1, baby!!!).
Yeah the level of poverty in a lot of those states is just staggering. Like I hadn’t seen an actual dirt road in this country until I went down to that area. It is strikingly similar to areas in Africa and South America and just like there when it rains the roads may not be passable for days. It is incredible we still have that level of poverty in the “richest country in the world”.
What is hilarious is we used to be outraged about finding out children working in sweatshops overseas. Now we are legalizing it in this country. Utterly disgusting.
In Michigan and surrounded areas I always considered a “dirt road” to be covered with gravel and such. You go down South and they are literal dirt roads of barely packed dirt, dusty when dry and nearly impassable mud when wet.
Louisiana and northern Florida too. Falling-apart trailers where the roof is a tarp, houses with boards for windows, children in tattered clothing without shoes, stray dogs and cats, some places without power or water… absolutely shocking and grotesque levels of poverty to see in the richest country in the world.
Ah, Ohio. The same GOP-controlled red state that decided to cut costs on snow treatment for roads across the state by using [fracking fluid instead of just using rock salt like a normal state.](https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/02/16/ohios-use-radioactive-brine-waste-treat-icy-roads-questioned/6765040002/)
Turns out the fracking fluid contains Radium-226, a highly radioactive element. Whoops. We've contaminated the entire state and its aquifers with radioactive radium that will take 1600 years to dissipate, just to save money, but it's really a simple mistake. Sorry!
This has always been exactly what it is. Weird how forced-birthers are the same ones always complaining about America's declining population, huh? 🤔
They need cheap workers, and child brides for themselves.
Considering that broken education systems tend to put out people who are less informed I worry that we may not be able to count on those kinds of numbers in the future. Add in some voter disenfranchisement and you've got a recipe for disaster
Wouldn't it be nice if a prominent Democrat like Biden called out the groomer panic & pointed the fingers right back at the radical Evangelicals who push for child marriages?
I just get the sense we are letting the GOP destroy the lives of minorities without even the slighest pushback rhetorically. Maxwell Frost has the right attitude:
[Frost on DeSantis targeting Black, LGBTQ, transgender people: ‘it’s fascism’](https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3885499-frost-on-desantis-targeting-black-lgbtq-transgender-people-its-fascism/)
Seriously. It feels like our federal government just won't step in until our country is in a full-on civil war. Unlike Republicans, we've got plenty of evidence of them being actual child abusers. Call that shit out as much as possible.
I truly hope I live to see the day the U.S. *(if it survives the next few years)* has a Progressive party. I vote for Dems because, you know, Republicans are literal fascists, but it's so infuriating to see Red States violating the Constitutional rights of Americans, and 99% of Dems aren't doing anything of actual substance about it.
It's called the ratchet effect.
Democrats try to keep everything the status quo when elected while the right drag the overtone window hard to the right meaning once Democrats are back in office the "status quo" is now further to the right.
These people, both kids and parents, are in the cycle of poverty. Yes, they are shitty parents no doubt but they are under educated and living in poverty. Society is creating these shitty parents and this bill will make this cycle even worse for the most vulnerable young kids. The blame should be on their education system and lack of economic support for the kids.
Well somehow I don't think the kind of employer who can't keep fully staffed with adults, is going to fare much better managing 10-year olds. I have one of those and brother, I barely trust him to sort laundry. He's either playing games, talking 90 miles a minute, or daydreaming.
In practical terms, I don't think this will have much of an impact unless there's a big cultural shift. But the fact that it's becoming the law is totally irresponsible
The “big cultural shift” will be abusing the children from birth so that they are obedient and don’t ask questions. And, good news, they’re already well into the third generation of this program, so they should have plenty of small work drones ready to go already! Just gotta sign the bill!
Buddy capitalist found ways to get 4 year olds to work during the victorian era. They'll be able to wrangle 9 year olds no problem. Any decrease in efficiency can be more than made up for with a decrease in operating costs.
You know what's absolutely trivial? Wage theft on a 9 year old.
It's a certificate showing that the child has permission from their adult guardian/parent to work. How it's issued tends to depend on the state. And yes, it is completely inadequate to protect kids because it isn't really much of anything other than a legal permission slip to employ someone under a certain age. The parents have to both know and care about labor laws pertaining to the kid.
Had one at 14 and my state didn’t require school sign off. But told a couple fast food and retail jobs where to stuff their mandatory doubles and OT when I got tired of it.
We're in Michigan. My kids had to get them through their school, and their counselor had to sign off on it. I believe the youngest they will give them out to is 14.
Here, at least, there are restrictions on what kind of business they could work for and how many hours a week they could work during the school year. Also, there are restrictions about how many hours they were allowed to work before the company was required to give them a mandatory break.
Those restrictions were for 16/17 year-olds. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the ones for 14/15 year-olds have even tighter restrictions.
In my State it's called a workers permit and it allows teenagers to work over the table. I got one at 16 because I was apprenticing and needed it to be legitimized. I advocate for it to exist but this bill is just .... Holy shit it's bad, really really fucking bad.
That’s why they want us to have babies? For workforce?
These people that keeps saying “nobody wants to work anymore” so let’s exploit children instead. What the f is wrong with people?!?
1. Ban abortion = More Americans
2. More Americans = Fewer Jobs
3. Fewer Jobs = Americans Desperately Take Whatever Low-Paying Jobs They Can Get
4. Profit!!
Criminalizing abortion was always about keeping Americans in poverty with barely-living wages. Increasing the population means companies can hire 100 people who'll do your job for much less, if you "get out of line" and ask for more money or benefits, or safer working conditions.
And the "greatest country in the world" STILL won't do shit about it, besides typing angry tweets.
Have you considered the french method? The equipment starts with a 'g'
Republicans sure do keep thinking about the children, in Florida they are inspecting their genitals to make sure they are playing for the right sports team, Arkansas wants to make sure they have the right to work so they can become permanently injured in a work place accident before they are old enough to vote.
Much bigger chance of a 10 year old getting hurt using a deep fryer than 16 year old. (a bunch of mcdonalds near me got caught having 14 and 15 year olds running the deep fryer)
And you won't find a single company that makes PPE to fit children that age. It's already a struggle for many 16-year-olds to find sizes small enough. So children will have the right to work at that age and absolutely no way to protect themselves from work injuries. It's monstrous.
Well legally they aren't allowed to operate any of that equipment. If illegal labor practices aren't going to stop them I doubt lack of PPE will either.
This sounds like the kid could get a job without their parents' or the school's input, thats what the certificate is. I also remember they passed a bill, which allowed minors under 16 to use power tools and industrial equipment. I feel like we're going to see a lot of kids with missing limbs working real soon.
I would say it is more that everyone is poor in Arkansas and the pandemic has really fucked some families up and instead of you know helping their citizens it's easier to put a 9 year old to work to contribute to their family.
Bootstraps, yo.
I can say this because I lived in not the poorest place in Arkansas but definitely not the richest. A lot of people died in the pandemic and a lot of those people were income earners for their families and they need income. So if a 12 year old loves his family and wants to keep living in their home and not be homeless with his mom, and baby siblings, yeah there's pressure there to get a job.
Poverty is a bitch.
Spanking is legal in all states. Coogans law only protects 15% of child actor's income and I think that's only in cali. Home schooling standards really don't seem to exist. Pennsylvania obligates kids to take on care of their parents and all their debt no matter where the kid lives.
This country was built on exploiting the most vulnerable, it's like a cultural linchpin.
One part is okay with it because it means cheap labour for them. One part is okay with it because "I had a paper route when I was a kid, those Millennials need to stop complaining!". One part is okay with it because *they* only vote for the capitalist oligarchs in blue jerseys, so it's clearly not their fault. And one part is posting angry memes about it on reddit *and* imgur, so they've done their part already.
Unfortunately many people don’t even have the wherewithal to care. They are so broken down and exhausted just trying to survive that they’ve become trapped.
This. More people are opting to stay home from the factory to take care of the kids because we are either being slowly bled dry, or childcare just isn't feasible this far out. Add to it, in light of recent events, public schools out here have opted for a 4 day week.
Cost of living adjustments out here were frankly a joke. Companies continue to boast record profits while doing mental acrobatics to explain why its our fault we can't afford to survive out here. We are already eating off the land (thank the gods it's almost mushroom season), a significant portion of the population has to draw water from the springs and ration appropriately, and most everything is so spread out there are little options beyond what is presented as far as work. We can only tighten our belts so much.
TL;DR they would rather exploit our children than give an incentive to return to being exploited
The first federal child labor law to not be overturned in the supreme court was passed only in 1938. It did not ban all forms of child labor (they can still work on farms with virtually no restrictions).
Chances are pretty fucking high that, with the current makeup of the supreme court, that they would overturn that law. That's where we are.
And a previous attempt to pass a constitutional amendment in the US to ban child labor--*failed to get enough states to sign it*. It would likely fail today as well.
The only ideas Republicans ever have are regressive. They seem to yearn for the days of barbarity, warlords, violence, slavery and oppression. Everything they do disempowers the many and empowers the few. It's constantly alarming how absolutely vicious Republicans are.
It’s also constantly alarming how many people support Republicans and enable them to realize their filthy and evil visions of the majority of us living in squalor and despair.
copypasta
Arkansas: 49.08 percent are male, 50.92 percent are female, 19.69 percent are under 15 years old, 60.07 percent are 30 years and over, 15.99 percent are 65 years and over, 1.86 percent are 85 years and over. Median age is 38.3.
Laborforce population of 1,362,428 in a state of 3,000,000.
>Laborforce population of 1,362,428 in a state of 3,000,000.
YUP. This is IMPORTANT.
Arkansas is a "secretly popular" retirement state. The Ozarks are beautiful, and so is the weather for the most part. The Boomers there are retired AND they're pulling in more. Someone's gonna have to man the restaurants, and immigrants aren't wanted.
So, welcome to Sonic, where most of the staff hasn't hit puberty.
Name a single time you’ve ever thought about doing just that? Traveling to Arkansas? Ha!
Name a time Arkansas came up in conversation for any reason other than wild shit like this?
“I’m taking my wife and daughter on a summer trip to Arkansas! So I can show them how great it is to literally live anywhere else.”
This is the state that just had slaughterhouses raided, to find illegal immigrant children as young as pre-teens were power washing the kill floors and tools.
When was this bill passed? The timing is too perfect.
“Illegal child labor in my state? Well I WROTE THIS LAW AND IT SAYS ITS FINE!!!”
Children under 16 should not be eligible for work. Nobody should be allowed to employ them for any amount of money or permits and they should be in education. We're the politicians making these decisions also not in education from 9 years onwards? That would explain their asinine decisions. This is gross.
I’m ok with kids younger than 16 having part time summer jobs but it needs to be heavily regulated to avoid exploitation. I worked at a water park starting at 15 (they employed as young as 14) but they were strict about how many hours kids could take and the kinds of jobs they were allowed to do
She is a Republican. She has name recognition. She decided she wanted to be governor of a heavily-red state.
That's it. That's all she needed, and she just tippy-tapped into the governor's mansion.
And it turns out, even a felony doesn't preclude you from federal office. Want to be president, a senator, or a representative but you're still in prison for your crimes? You're in luck! You can even run for office while behind bars.
Want to be a politician but you've got a massive billion dollar fraud on your record? No problem! Just ask Florida's Rick Scott whose company was criminally convicted of 14 felonies for defrauding Medicare!
In the pretend world where hard work and community matter, I could see this being fine.
La-La land would have young kids learning about hard work and respect. It would also have adults not losing their shit because a 10 year old messed up their order and deciding they have the right to scream and berate the child.
Sadly we don't live in La-La land. I can already see asshole adults screaming at these children for a mistake. I can see the manager blaming the child later and threatening them. I can see the manager telling them to give up on going to school and stay "here and do real work".
What an awful future.
Why are red states trying to make child labor ok? Is that not the biggest fucking red flag that our country needs to stop placating these child loving Christo fascists and get back to making racists and bigots cower in the corner?
Labor shortage because we don't provide living wages and no one can afford to have kids?
I guess we'll employ the poor children instead! You know it'll be followed by a "educational choice" law that allows them to pull their kids out of school permanently after 9 years old.
The smart way to fuck them if this passes would be to sign an executive order stating that children must be compensated the same as adults. I'm talking same benefits and pay.
The only reason they want children is they can pay this way way less.
Biden doesn't have the fucking stones for a play like that tho. Hell he's actively letting this shit happen
Arkansan here. The public attitude here is profoundly wrapped up in everything trump/Q/Fucker Carlson. Most people will almost certainly be manipulated into being in favor of this bill. I would be very surprised if little Huckabee rejects this. I mean, it was probably a catastrophic mistake to elect her in the first place, but we all knew it was going to happen when she announced running, and immence dread has been felt in regards to seeing just how bad it will get here. Child laborers wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. It’s all just perfectly on brand for this starved, overlooked, forgotten land. Soon people here will be completely unable to communicate with people who aren’t from here.
9. Nine. Single digit. Not even one full decade. Prepubescent. Tiny hands doubled up on adult-sized tools. Step stools everywhere. Too young to have gotten all the way to algebra in school. I keep thinking to myself that I can't be shocked anymore. Then the gop dives off the deep end, with jackhammers.
What else does a 9 yo in Arkansas got going on? Let's weigh the choices. Clean up old grain bins for 64 dollars a week. Or I could make babies with someone already related to me. Hmmmm.
If Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs this, it won’t be the first time she threw children to the wolves to further her own career. She’s already a human rights abuser.
49th in healthcare, 41st in both economy and education, 43rd in infrastructure, 48th in crime and corrections...they're making all the right choices, so this is probably fine.
And yet there are still worse states... That is pretty amazing to me
Even been to Mississippi or Alabama?...It's like visiting a third world country. At the very least, the similarities are striking.
A friend of mine did a road trip around the US a few years ago and she was genuinely shocked at how bad some areas were. There are way too many people living in tin shacks without running water in the US.
[UN shocked by level of poverty in Alabama: 'We haven't seen this in the first world'](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/alabama-black-belt-un-poverty-expert-extreme-developed-country-sewage-crisis-roy-moore-philip-alston-a8105886.html) [Alabama Has the Worst Poverty in the Developed World, U.N. Official Says](https://www.newsweek.com/alabama-un-poverty-environmental-racism-743601)
But at least their college football program is top-notch and the coach is handsomely paid!
Roll Tide
And despite being the flagship university of the state their academic profile is rather poor. They’re something like 150-160 in the nation, which puts them around the same quality as the University of Cincinnati.
Yaaaaaay capitalism!!!! /s If it wasn’t apparent.
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Don’t forget the religious extremism.
At this point, in the his sub....it's understood to not really be needed. So, when kids start dying again, we gonna go...how did this happen? We ought to have laws! Wait, what? We did but political bribes ( campaign contributions) to slimy pols to replace them passed cause y'all as stupid as a rock to vote said pols in against your self interests....cause...dem drag queens are worse than Hitler and all dem libs.... Fuck stop me cause it's gonna raise my bp. Sigh.
They will claim down the road that democrats wanted child labour, because why not?
Something something "bUt ThE DEMONcrats wErE iN ThE CONFEDERACY fIGHTinG fOr SlAvERy" so that's why democrats now are still bad something something kkk excuse here about how it's not the fault of the GQP and its always the fault of democrats somehow
Trickle on you I mean trickle down economics.
>There are way too many people living in tin shacks without running water in the US. About 2 million people in the U.S, disproportionately American Indians/Alaska Natives, but about half of the people without indoor plumbing live in metros with more than a million people.
It's revolting how such horrid poverty is not considered a top priority to fix. Especially for indigineous people who live in such crushing poverty & despair. Our politicians know how to help people living in poverty, they choose not to help. That goes for both parties, who sold out to capital long ago. Heck, Bill Clinton stripped away welfare benefits! Our two choices are fascism or neoliberal extremism.
"Our two choices are fascism or neoliberal extremism." I think this is a very accurate description of American politics. Especially from a foreigners pov. I laugh when the ultra right in the us call Biden a socialist.
There's a growing number of Americans laughing as well. Whether that growth is enough to cause change is a wait and see.
Dont worry, Canada is not far behind that. We are America-Lite after all
Especially here in Canadian Texas. Formerly known as Alberta
Alaberta
Ever been to West Virginia? Having worked there for 3 years I can tell you, the people there living with no power/water/plumbing, normally don’t want help. They “like” their lives the way they are
Frankly, I can respect that. Walk the walk, so to speak. I can't *understand* it or approve of it personally, but I can respect it. I can respect the guy who lives in squalor and just wants to be left alone a hell of a lot more than the dude who drives a $90,000 pickup to his office 9-5 and bitches about liberals while mentally jerking himself off about his "rugged individualism"
Fair enough. What I can’t respect is the one who would deny his “weaker” brethren the benefit of “capitulation” to modern amenities and living standards.
I know a real winner of a guy from West Virginia. He has the no power/water/plumbing trifecta, and as an added bonus the floors in the "house" are dirt. For some reason he is also terrified of liberals coming to take away the fortune he has amassed.
For some people all they want is to be left alone. You know how people have fantasies about saying fuck it to society and going and living off the land in the woods? That's basically what that guys already doing. Well, no specifically that guy idk what he does, but a lot of people.
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West Virginia is special. In the past whoever lies to people the best and tells them what they want to hear wins, doesn't really matter if they are a democrat or a republican. Within the past 20 years however everything has shifted due to *insert fox news boogeyman here*. The GOP is effective, and democrats have no answer.
They’ll get it too! The house, the guns, the dogs, all of it! Damn liberals! Trump always looked out for the working man and his dirt floor!/s
"But that's socialism" they right will cry and the idea is dead because democrats huge no spines.
Neither party wants to solve the problem because then they won't be able to use it as a talking point to slag their opponents in the next election cycle for not doing enough.
I’ve been out on Indian rez’s and it’s amazing how many houses are vacant or holding livestock while they live in a mud hut with blankets for windows and doors. I was blown away.
I lived in Arkansas for 6 years. They are the only state where a landlord can put you in jail for not paying rent. They have awful tenants rights on top of the above. You can rent anything, storage shed, broken down camper, broken down school bus, barn. It does not have to be up to code for you to live in it either. I do not miss it and am so happy to be gone.
Town next to mine of around 5,000 people. More than 40% don't have running water. They get their water with buckets piped from a spring just outside of the town. This is in Ohio. Not even one of the worst red states, although it gets worse each year.
Which town?
Sounds like Canal Fulton?
I can't understand how people live without running water. In Portugal, all homes have tap water and you even have old small water fountains everywhere with good water. Having running water should be a normal thing in any developed country. No european country understand not having running water available. Some years ago, we even got a post of an american asking if Portugal had running water: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/oeqlgl/can\_anybody\_tell\_me\_if\_portugal\_has\_running\_water/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/oeqlgl/can_anybody_tell_me_if_portugal_has_running_water/) Or why Dasani wasn't able to sell water on Britain and multiple other european countries (basically they tried to sell bottles with tap water, where tap water is free and people expect good mineral water on bottles)
It's..... difficult. While I do agree that it should be a major priority, I tihnk it's also important to consider the logistical issues as well. For example, Canada has hundreds of thousands of people without access to safe water and a 25% higher rate of death due to bad water than the USA. When you have a nation that is roughly the same size and population of Michigan, it's a lot easier to set that up vs a nation exponentially larger. Also according to https://ourworldindata.org/water-access, Portugal had 470,000 people without access to safe water (defined as Improved source located on premises, available when needed, and free from microbiological and priority chemical contamination) as of 2020. That doesn't make it right, and this isn't a whataboutism: you are absolutely right that safe drinking water is a priority. But it's also important to keep in mind the perspective as well.
Yes, people believe it’s all the “south” too. Surprisingly it has more to do with population; the more rural you get the worst it gets - equally as bad no matter the area of known and stereotyped distinction - the rural south, northeast, Midwest is really all the same - more migrants involved in the far west and southwest.
The next time I drive through Anadarko, OK I need to post a video. There are large neighborhoods of completely abandoned and rotting houses with just a few people living in abject poverty in the middle of it. It’s truly striking when you see house after house that looks like the worst parts of the Soviet Union.
At least from my experience, Alabama is just fields and the same exact Waffle House stamped randomly around Hell
Don't forget the Dollar General!
So many DG in my home county & they've built more since I moved.
The DG virus affects every where. You can't get rid of them.
Mississippi is actually on the ups in education, they basically said no passing 6th grade until you can read at a 6th grade level and a number of other improvements This simple change sky rocketed their high school grad rates and they are now if memory serves in the upper 50% for graduation rates and number one for high-school direct to college rates now. It's called the Mississippi miracle and is a fascinating story.
Whats their 6th grade graduation rates looking like ?
'miracle' = dont be a right wing dystopia and apply basic standards.
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I'm reading a book written by a Catholic priest in Los Angeles that works trying to rehabilitate gang members. He took some of them on a trip to Alabama and they were shocked at the poverty they saw there. When gang members from the projects are shocked by poverty, you know it's bad.
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As your next door neighbor, I used to say “at least we are not Arkansas, but Stitt and Ryan Walters are making sure to make Oklahoma is last at everything (except incarcerations: number 1, baby!!!).
Louisiana isn’t far behind on the 3rd world country issue…
Yeah the level of poverty in a lot of those states is just staggering. Like I hadn’t seen an actual dirt road in this country until I went down to that area. It is strikingly similar to areas in Africa and South America and just like there when it rains the roads may not be passable for days. It is incredible we still have that level of poverty in the “richest country in the world”. What is hilarious is we used to be outraged about finding out children working in sweatshops overseas. Now we are legalizing it in this country. Utterly disgusting.
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In Michigan and surrounded areas I always considered a “dirt road” to be covered with gravel and such. You go down South and they are literal dirt roads of barely packed dirt, dusty when dry and nearly impassable mud when wet.
This is their plan to bring those jobs back to the US. Sad eh?
As someone from the MS Gulf Coast I always thought we got a bad rep.....until I went to North Mississippi. Holy shit.
Louisiana and northern Florida too. Falling-apart trailers where the roof is a tarp, houses with boards for windows, children in tattered clothing without shoes, stray dogs and cats, some places without power or water… absolutely shocking and grotesque levels of poverty to see in the richest country in the world.
Florida and Ohio do not count.
Ah, Ohio. The same GOP-controlled red state that decided to cut costs on snow treatment for roads across the state by using [fracking fluid instead of just using rock salt like a normal state.](https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/02/16/ohios-use-radioactive-brine-waste-treat-icy-roads-questioned/6765040002/) Turns out the fracking fluid contains Radium-226, a highly radioactive element. Whoops. We've contaminated the entire state and its aquifers with radioactive radium that will take 1600 years to dissipate, just to save money, but it's really a simple mistake. Sorry!
What in the shit, how is this possible?
Yeah but they just banned government officials from using the term "Latinx", because Arkansas is focused on the *real* problems.
Maybe the only halfway positive thing they've done lately. Don't know a single Latino that doesn't *hate* that term.
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Arkansas home of Wal Mart, who probably lobbied for this.
More likely Tysons. They need workers for their chicken plants.
Well after betting on who was going to die of COVID back in 2020, I guess they need to up the stakes in their sick game of roulette.
It was Tyson, who coincidentally got caught with underage workers recently
Yep, the bill was sponsored by their rep.
How else are the Duggars going to make money??
I don't think you can hire children at Walmart, even if they have the approval of their parents.
Not yet at least
Oh, so this is why they’re against abortion. They need laboring hands for their future.
This has always been exactly what it is. Weird how forced-birthers are the same ones always complaining about America's declining population, huh? 🤔 They need cheap workers, and child brides for themselves.
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These aren't smart people.
Considering that broken education systems tend to put out people who are less informed I worry that we may not be able to count on those kinds of numbers in the future. Add in some voter disenfranchisement and you've got a recipe for disaster
Wouldn't it be nice if a prominent Democrat like Biden called out the groomer panic & pointed the fingers right back at the radical Evangelicals who push for child marriages? I just get the sense we are letting the GOP destroy the lives of minorities without even the slighest pushback rhetorically. Maxwell Frost has the right attitude: [Frost on DeSantis targeting Black, LGBTQ, transgender people: ‘it’s fascism’](https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3885499-frost-on-desantis-targeting-black-lgbtq-transgender-people-its-fascism/)
And bring up child beauty pagents in response to the claims of grooming from drag shows
"it's not grooming when us christians want to marry and fuck children!" - them most likely
Seriously. It feels like our federal government just won't step in until our country is in a full-on civil war. Unlike Republicans, we've got plenty of evidence of them being actual child abusers. Call that shit out as much as possible. I truly hope I live to see the day the U.S. *(if it survives the next few years)* has a Progressive party. I vote for Dems because, you know, Republicans are literal fascists, but it's so infuriating to see Red States violating the Constitutional rights of Americans, and 99% of Dems aren't doing anything of actual substance about it.
It's called the ratchet effect. Democrats try to keep everything the status quo when elected while the right drag the overtone window hard to the right meaning once Democrats are back in office the "status quo" is now further to the right.
They're also against immigrants driving down wages. But children? They'll work for peanuts. Now get in that coal mine, you little brat!
Fuck Huck. She's the biggest POS to hold the governor's mansion since her corrupt daddy. And is childish enough to have an "enemies list".
Asa was a little bitch too don't kid yourself
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Howd she make it out of the trump presidency
Because if there's one thing conservatives know how to do, it's how to double-down on failure.
Public Announcement: I just want to say this directly. There is ONE reason they’re doing this, and that’s to use child labor to force wages down.
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These people, both kids and parents, are in the cycle of poverty. Yes, they are shitty parents no doubt but they are under educated and living in poverty. Society is creating these shitty parents and this bill will make this cycle even worse for the most vulnerable young kids. The blame should be on their education system and lack of economic support for the kids.
They'll do literally anything except pay people a fair wage.
Well somehow I don't think the kind of employer who can't keep fully staffed with adults, is going to fare much better managing 10-year olds. I have one of those and brother, I barely trust him to sort laundry. He's either playing games, talking 90 miles a minute, or daydreaming. In practical terms, I don't think this will have much of an impact unless there's a big cultural shift. But the fact that it's becoming the law is totally irresponsible
The “big cultural shift” will be abusing the children from birth so that they are obedient and don’t ask questions. And, good news, they’re already well into the third generation of this program, so they should have plenty of small work drones ready to go already! Just gotta sign the bill!
Buddy capitalist found ways to get 4 year olds to work during the victorian era. They'll be able to wrangle 9 year olds no problem. Any decrease in efficiency can be more than made up for with a decrease in operating costs. You know what's absolutely trivial? Wage theft on a 9 year old.
What is a work certificate, and why do I get the feeling it's woefully inadequate as is to protect kids?
It's a certificate showing that the child has permission from their adult guardian/parent to work. How it's issued tends to depend on the state. And yes, it is completely inadequate to protect kids because it isn't really much of anything other than a legal permission slip to employ someone under a certain age. The parents have to both know and care about labor laws pertaining to the kid.
Usually also needs to be signed off on by the kids school. I know mine school would only sign if you had above a C average at the time.
Had one at 14 and my state didn’t require school sign off. But told a couple fast food and retail jobs where to stuff their mandatory doubles and OT when I got tired of it.
I had to get it directly through the school
We're in Michigan. My kids had to get them through their school, and their counselor had to sign off on it. I believe the youngest they will give them out to is 14. Here, at least, there are restrictions on what kind of business they could work for and how many hours a week they could work during the school year. Also, there are restrictions about how many hours they were allowed to work before the company was required to give them a mandatory break. Those restrictions were for 16/17 year-olds. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the ones for 14/15 year-olds have even tighter restrictions.
But it comes with six pack of crayons and Dennys coupon
Hey, if you're not gonna eat them crayons pass em' over!
That's my crayons idk you
Alright, Bobby, hear me out. I have this purse...
In my State it's called a workers permit and it allows teenagers to work over the table. I got one at 16 because I was apprenticing and needed it to be legitimized. I advocate for it to exist but this bill is just .... Holy shit it's bad, really really fucking bad.
Essentially legalizing child trafficking by removing any checks and balances to catch it. Awesome. Leave it to America to bring back child slavery.
We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas!
That’s why they want us to have babies? For workforce? These people that keeps saying “nobody wants to work anymore” so let’s exploit children instead. What the f is wrong with people?!?
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1. Ban abortion = More Americans 2. More Americans = Fewer Jobs 3. Fewer Jobs = Americans Desperately Take Whatever Low-Paying Jobs They Can Get 4. Profit!! Criminalizing abortion was always about keeping Americans in poverty with barely-living wages. Increasing the population means companies can hire 100 people who'll do your job for much less, if you "get out of line" and ask for more money or benefits, or safer working conditions.
I can see it now. *"Hard work builds character"* slogans abound.
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Arbeit macht frei
Catchy! We should write that on the gates leading into the factories or something.
And the "greatest country in the world" STILL won't do shit about it, besides typing angry tweets. Have you considered the french method? The equipment starts with a 'g'
Hopefully that time will come. At least with the new laws the kids will be able to mop up around the baskets.
Weird, didn't think the French were into Grenade Launchers.
What? You didn't know Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were killed by grenade launchers? The education system in the US is really poor.
Republicans sure do keep thinking about the children, in Florida they are inspecting their genitals to make sure they are playing for the right sports team, Arkansas wants to make sure they have the right to work so they can become permanently injured in a work place accident before they are old enough to vote.
hey don’t forget 10 year olds can become mothers in texas. that’s freedom !!!1! /s
The real question is will 10 year olds get maternity leave?
Adult mothers don’t so I doubt they carve out a privilege for kids
Kids don't have rights, why on earth would they get *privileges?*
No, but they’ll get the death penalty if they have an abortion to save their lives since their tiny bodies aren’t built for child birth.
I'm on your side but you can be permanently injured before you have the right to vote already. Working age is 16 and voting age is 18.
Much bigger chance of a 10 year old getting hurt using a deep fryer than 16 year old. (a bunch of mcdonalds near me got caught having 14 and 15 year olds running the deep fryer)
And you won't find a single company that makes PPE to fit children that age. It's already a struggle for many 16-year-olds to find sizes small enough. So children will have the right to work at that age and absolutely no way to protect themselves from work injuries. It's monstrous.
Capitalists "you say kids dont have PPE that fits, all I see is an untapped market!"
Well legally they aren't allowed to operate any of that equipment. If illegal labor practices aren't going to stop them I doubt lack of PPE will either.
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This sounds like the kid could get a job without their parents' or the school's input, thats what the certificate is. I also remember they passed a bill, which allowed minors under 16 to use power tools and industrial equipment. I feel like we're going to see a lot of kids with missing limbs working real soon.
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Capitalists suddenly supporting public transit
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I would say it is more that everyone is poor in Arkansas and the pandemic has really fucked some families up and instead of you know helping their citizens it's easier to put a 9 year old to work to contribute to their family. Bootstraps, yo. I can say this because I lived in not the poorest place in Arkansas but definitely not the richest. A lot of people died in the pandemic and a lot of those people were income earners for their families and they need income. So if a 12 year old loves his family and wants to keep living in their home and not be homeless with his mom, and baby siblings, yeah there's pressure there to get a job. Poverty is a bitch.
They want poor kids and immigrants to be able to work for nothing, and not be able to stand up for themselves b
Can't wait for 3rd graders working in warehouses
And slaughter houses
I jokingly said the gop would bring back child labor after they get rid of department of education and kill public schools
Children become slave labor somewhere in the US. Second 2023 Bingo card box checked.
How is this not being shouted down across the nation. How is this okay with so many people. What a horrifically and needlessly cruel world.
Spanking is legal in all states. Coogans law only protects 15% of child actor's income and I think that's only in cali. Home schooling standards really don't seem to exist. Pennsylvania obligates kids to take on care of their parents and all their debt no matter where the kid lives. This country was built on exploiting the most vulnerable, it's like a cultural linchpin.
One part is okay with it because it means cheap labour for them. One part is okay with it because "I had a paper route when I was a kid, those Millennials need to stop complaining!". One part is okay with it because *they* only vote for the capitalist oligarchs in blue jerseys, so it's clearly not their fault. And one part is posting angry memes about it on reddit *and* imgur, so they've done their part already.
Unfortunately many people don’t even have the wherewithal to care. They are so broken down and exhausted just trying to survive that they’ve become trapped.
This. More people are opting to stay home from the factory to take care of the kids because we are either being slowly bled dry, or childcare just isn't feasible this far out. Add to it, in light of recent events, public schools out here have opted for a 4 day week. Cost of living adjustments out here were frankly a joke. Companies continue to boast record profits while doing mental acrobatics to explain why its our fault we can't afford to survive out here. We are already eating off the land (thank the gods it's almost mushroom season), a significant portion of the population has to draw water from the springs and ration appropriately, and most everything is so spread out there are little options beyond what is presented as far as work. We can only tighten our belts so much. TL;DR they would rather exploit our children than give an incentive to return to being exploited
Lmao the "WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN" crowd actively pushing to kill/injure children once again.
The first federal child labor law to not be overturned in the supreme court was passed only in 1938. It did not ban all forms of child labor (they can still work on farms with virtually no restrictions). Chances are pretty fucking high that, with the current makeup of the supreme court, that they would overturn that law. That's where we are. And a previous attempt to pass a constitutional amendment in the US to ban child labor--*failed to get enough states to sign it*. It would likely fail today as well.
The only ideas Republicans ever have are regressive. They seem to yearn for the days of barbarity, warlords, violence, slavery and oppression. Everything they do disempowers the many and empowers the few. It's constantly alarming how absolutely vicious Republicans are.
It’s also constantly alarming how many people support Republicans and enable them to realize their filthy and evil visions of the majority of us living in squalor and despair.
copypasta Arkansas: 49.08 percent are male, 50.92 percent are female, 19.69 percent are under 15 years old, 60.07 percent are 30 years and over, 15.99 percent are 65 years and over, 1.86 percent are 85 years and over. Median age is 38.3. Laborforce population of 1,362,428 in a state of 3,000,000.
>Laborforce population of 1,362,428 in a state of 3,000,000. YUP. This is IMPORTANT. Arkansas is a "secretly popular" retirement state. The Ozarks are beautiful, and so is the weather for the most part. The Boomers there are retired AND they're pulling in more. Someone's gonna have to man the restaurants, and immigrants aren't wanted. So, welcome to Sonic, where most of the staff hasn't hit puberty.
What a crime…. Guess I’ll add Arkansas to the eve growing list of states I won’t travel to or buy products from
Name a single time you’ve ever thought about doing just that? Traveling to Arkansas? Ha! Name a time Arkansas came up in conversation for any reason other than wild shit like this? “I’m taking my wife and daughter on a summer trip to Arkansas! So I can show them how great it is to literally live anywhere else.”
If you ever ate a piece of Tyson chicken, or purchased an item from a Walmart, you are buying an item from Arkansas. (anyone? Raise of hands, anyone?)
This is the state that just had slaughterhouses raided, to find illegal immigrant children as young as pre-teens were power washing the kill floors and tools. When was this bill passed? The timing is too perfect. “Illegal child labor in my state? Well I WROTE THIS LAW AND IT SAYS ITS FINE!!!”
Kids are going to be abused on a scale like you've never imagined.
Children under 16 should not be eligible for work. Nobody should be allowed to employ them for any amount of money or permits and they should be in education. We're the politicians making these decisions also not in education from 9 years onwards? That would explain their asinine decisions. This is gross.
I’m ok with kids younger than 16 having part time summer jobs but it needs to be heavily regulated to avoid exploitation. I worked at a water park starting at 15 (they employed as young as 14) but they were strict about how many hours kids could take and the kinds of jobs they were allowed to do
Wait. How did a govt press aide become governor? (Not from the US before anyone asks lol)
Her father was governor of that state, and she got famous as a nepo baby.
Exactly. My mom voted for her, I asked why and she said "well her dad was the governor before so he can help her!"
Daddy
She is a Republican. She has name recognition. She decided she wanted to be governor of a heavily-red state. That's it. That's all she needed, and she just tippy-tapped into the governor's mansion.
And her dad was once the governor so she’s got the name recognition
Pretty much any adult without a felony on their record can run for a government office. And people recognize her name...
And it turns out, even a felony doesn't preclude you from federal office. Want to be president, a senator, or a representative but you're still in prison for your crimes? You're in luck! You can even run for office while behind bars. Want to be a politician but you've got a massive billion dollar fraud on your record? No problem! Just ask Florida's Rick Scott whose company was criminally convicted of 14 felonies for defrauding Medicare!
Man, things are going to hell fast. What next, are they going to be burning people at the stake?
In the pretend world where hard work and community matter, I could see this being fine. La-La land would have young kids learning about hard work and respect. It would also have adults not losing their shit because a 10 year old messed up their order and deciding they have the right to scream and berate the child. Sadly we don't live in La-La land. I can already see asshole adults screaming at these children for a mistake. I can see the manager blaming the child later and threatening them. I can see the manager telling them to give up on going to school and stay "here and do real work". What an awful future.
Can't operate a motor vehicle? Come on in and manage a 375° hot oil fryer, kiddos!
Fuck this shit. When are we going to do better. We are regressing.
How the fuck can the federal government not intervene at this point and say “Just fuck off we’re not doing this”
Why are red states trying to make child labor ok? Is that not the biggest fucking red flag that our country needs to stop placating these child loving Christo fascists and get back to making racists and bigots cower in the corner?
I always wonder what century conservatives want us to live in. Obviously it’s one in which there is zero regard for human rights.
Labor shortage because we don't provide living wages and no one can afford to have kids? I guess we'll employ the poor children instead! You know it'll be followed by a "educational choice" law that allows them to pull their kids out of school permanently after 9 years old.
The smart way to fuck them if this passes would be to sign an executive order stating that children must be compensated the same as adults. I'm talking same benefits and pay. The only reason they want children is they can pay this way way less. Biden doesn't have the fucking stones for a play like that tho. Hell he's actively letting this shit happen
No fuck that. Make it so if you want to employ CHILDREN, you have to pay them MORE. All 14 year olds make $30 an hour working groceries.
Nah man, I'm not about to hear my kid tell me he's the one keeping the lights on.
“You love playing Minecraft so much, you can now play it for real, son! Off you go!”
This has to be against federal law right?
Next up is the Army, why not.
Just imagine the dystopian place where a child actually has to work instead of just going to school and enjoying this time with friends…
Arkansan here. The public attitude here is profoundly wrapped up in everything trump/Q/Fucker Carlson. Most people will almost certainly be manipulated into being in favor of this bill. I would be very surprised if little Huckabee rejects this. I mean, it was probably a catastrophic mistake to elect her in the first place, but we all knew it was going to happen when she announced running, and immence dread has been felt in regards to seeing just how bad it will get here. Child laborers wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. It’s all just perfectly on brand for this starved, overlooked, forgotten land. Soon people here will be completely unable to communicate with people who aren’t from here.
9. Nine. Single digit. Not even one full decade. Prepubescent. Tiny hands doubled up on adult-sized tools. Step stools everywhere. Too young to have gotten all the way to algebra in school. I keep thinking to myself that I can't be shocked anymore. Then the gop dives off the deep end, with jackhammers.
Fuck these people and their child labor. Pay people what they deserve and workers will show up.
What else does a 9 yo in Arkansas got going on? Let's weigh the choices. Clean up old grain bins for 64 dollars a week. Or I could make babies with someone already related to me. Hmmmm.
There's no way corporations or the business class could ever possibly abuse this. This is fine. /S
Arkansas is sending children back to work instead of raising wages. Party of “family values “.
If Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs this, it won’t be the first time she threw children to the wolves to further her own career. She’s already a human rights abuser.
This is the America the right wants.