The REAL Conspiracy to Exploit Kids 

We've reached the point where paying adult workers minimum wage isn't cheap enough for businesses anymore, so now they're moving onto hiring child workers they can pay less than minimum.

Just to be clear, part of the impetus for eliminating child labour was the worker complaint that they got paid less and drove wages down. It wasn't altruism or an appreciation of children's rights that ended child labour - it was a labour strategy.

How very much I love and appreciate you Adam! Thank you for your service speaking truth! ❤❤❤

If AOC can do it, then Adam Conover can run for Congress too. Come on Adam we need you! Immigrant children need you!!!

conservative want kid to be old enough to make wise decision and not be indoctrinated into a lifestyle as even Hitler knew you have to get them young.

Yeah- there was something about that on the radio in the Uk this morning. There is a segment of a bbc radio show- 5 live breakfast- that is called “in my opinion” where they get callers to give their opinions on a particular issue. This morning there was a guy trying to say that we should have sent people in to work during covid because “people are working less and being less productive”. While true, it’s largely because of the absurd amount of work we did before the pandemic- unpaid overtime was creeping up and up.

@@Anonyomus_commenter Even before COVID, though, younger Millennials and older Zoomers were already pushing back against these overtime/off-time narratives that poor work/life balance was both inevitable and expected to be acceptable. A boss calling an employee to tell them, "Someone called off today and we need all hands on deck,," was being responded to with, "Wow, that's crazy, good luck with that" so often that Americans gave it a name - "Quiet Qutting" which, surprise surprise, bootlickers used as a cudgel to call all of *US* entitled, but NOT the businesses that were increasingly exploiting us. They couldn't control us anymore, now they're controlling the kids. It's sad, it's fucked up, and I'm sick and goddamn tired about how it "hurts the economy" and how it'll "put us in another recession" for us to demand better. To hell with that, I'm the working poor and I've lived through three recessions already, don't threaten me with a good time just because the rich have farther to fall. Also, I understand your story comes from the UK, but here in America, any narrative of "being less productive" is patently false.

Offer a decent wage and get no shortage of applicants. If people are working for a living then they are owed the living they work for.

Well, I really don't want to work. I did when I was a child, evause I wanted money for toys. But when I got to a working age I started having suicidal thoughts because work didn't seem worth the effort. I'm rather homeless than having to pay for housing. Life is boring, work is even more so. Why do something boring so I can do something _else_ that is boring? That'd be lose-lose. Sometimes ded is better. But hey, that's just me. People who find life worth living should be willing to work for enough pay. Even if work is boring that would still be lose-win.

There were two, three, maybe four generations of Americans for whom home ownership, wealth building, and comfortable retirement were well and truly expected from a full time job. The middle class was the majority of the population. Now full-time work nets most people barely enough to live in general, much less live comfortably in the area they need to work (so they don't need to commute 2-3 hrs a day)

Visited Seattle as a european, first time in the US. I was amazed at the amount of fancy buildings and homeless in the same area. Its just a different world. Yeah we got 2 homeless people in my city too but they kinda wanted to be. Idk why its so normal to have people on the streets

​@@dfjab TWO??

Yeah but Nestle has to outcompete Keurig by advertising eco friendly coffee pods to the Asian millenials by hiring a marketing firm to hire blackpink, so they can sell us clean drinking water when the microplastics invade us. How are they going to do that if you're not prepared to support an artificial basilisk intelligence which optimizes for biological human growth? The answer is make as many babies as soon as possible.

@@dfjabholy shit… I wanna move to Europe now and be a counselor… at least then I could afford a home.

It's not unchecked capitalism it's just capitalism. If you have enough money you can make the rules and all the profits in our great system of ours and everyone else suffers the consequences

it bleeds over to us in Canada too, half of our companies are american and we give many of our resources to you just so we can buy them back.

It isn't likely to get better I'm afraid. The only reason that capitalism and its bourgeois state installed social democratic programs in America during the great depression and in the rest of the first world after WW2 was because there was a twofold crisis. The first was that the great depression caused, among other things, a crisis of overproduction/underconsumption, where the working class literally got too exploited and hence too poor to buy products and keep the economy going. The other was the crisis of a possible revolution, where radicalized workers could have risen up and overthrown the system that exploits them. The New Deal, the first great social democratic program of this wave, was instituted to solve both of these - to give workers some bread crumbs to make them able to buy the products and keep the economy going, and to avert revolution. These programs of course cut into capitalist profits quite a bit, not so much from the rise in taxes, but purely because where these programs are instituted, it is harder for capital to make profits in the first place. Many big business leaders who saw beyond their short-term gain and instead valued their long-term preservation as a class actually supported FDR and his wave. Others who were not so long-term-thinking tried to do the Business Plot coup, but that's a different story... The point was, this social democracy that ultimately fully crystalized itself in the first world post-war... it saved capitalism... for a while. There is one thing that loomed tho... that is the falling rate of profit. When capitalism doesn't expand rapidly, there is a tendency for the rate of profit to fall. Now, the rate of profit was somewhat maintained in spite of this social democracy, first by the war itself, then by financial imperialism, where first world states paved the way for corporations to establish new markets or expand into them, which was very profitable. Some first world countries even imperialized other first world countries to a lesser degree (USA towards Europe). But even then, time was ticking... ultimately it only lasted 30 years, by which point, workers were literally getting "too much" for capitalism to cope with. When profits decline, you get capital strikes, withdrawal of investment, industry moves to more profitable markets in the third world, growth slows and all that is needed to make this go overboard is a spark, which is exactly what happened in 1973 with the Oil Crisis and the subsequent stagflation crisis. As growth slowed from all prior fall in profits, now production slowed too, and it could have led to an even bigger disaster. This crisis of underprofitability had to be averted, and capitalism found a way. It started to erode these social democratic programs and the previous class-collaborationist compromise and introduced austerity, we have neoliberalism, and we have been living under it for 50 years now. As time went on, the working class saw its slice of the pie decrease more and more, and now we are heading for a repeat of what happened nearly a 100 years ago, but this time, the rate of profit is generally much lower as it fell again, and this perfectly explains why all this shit is happening, child labor included. But this time, we cannot afford a repeat of social democracy for two reasons. One is that capitalism is finding it harder and harder to create new markets, so the rate of profit will trend downwards, and if these social democratic programs were introduced, we would see them cut into them severely, and capitalism NEEDS profits to keep going or else disaster for all happens. The other reason we cannot afford it is that we are running out of time. We are seeing wars return because they are profitable for the imperial powers that wage them, and we are seeing a worsening of the climate crisis that cannot be stopped under capitalism's framework, because doing so would require degrowth and the phasing out of fossil fuels, both of which would cut into profits severely. If social democracy came back by some miracle, maybe because the bourgeois class felt so threatened by an organized working class that they simply had no choice (like they did last century), this time, that cycle would be much shorter before we were back to austerity again, and it would have to be maintained by increased exploitation of the third world, or by war or... by capitalists trying to expand capitalism into space or something, idk... Oh yeah, not to mention we would be prolonging the pains of capitalism and of the climate crisis specifically. The solution therefore is not in reformist social democracy or in the marginally more substantial "state socialism", which in practice is just a much more militant and authoritarian version of social democracy and therefore just another strand of capitalism. What we need instead is a progressive revolutionary socialist movement. One that is rooted in the working class, that rejects bourgeois reformism, that is international in nature, anti-imperialist, anti-bigotry, and one that seeks the complete abolition of capitalism (the commodity-form, markets, etc.), and therefore the complete abolition of class society and of the state, to replace it instead with a democratically managed society and economy. It is either this or the bourgeoisie takes most of civilization and most of humanity out with them, either in a slow and painful decline from the climate catastrophe, or in a fiery blaze of nuclear war. It's either socialism or barbarism.

@@Gordon_Freeman_PhD Why did we as a species have to do capitalism instead of having socialism or communism from the beginning and leaving it at that? To hell with trial and error!

@@DarDarBinks1986 It wasn't exactly a trial and error process. Capitalism emerged in Europe out of feudalism (a system primarily not based on markets or on profits), as there was a class conflict between the land-owning aristocracy and the newly emerging mercantile class, or bourgeoisie. Capitalism was a mostly natural progression out of this class conflict. As for why feudalism arose in the first place, and why class and state society emerged at all, that's a much longer and more complex story, but ig... ig what I'm trying to say is that it wasn't random, but it doesn't have to be this way and it won't always be this way.

@@Gordon_Freeman_PhD Why couldn't people skip from feudalism straight to socialism? What did they think was going to happen?

Yeah, I’ve also heard it said as “If the only penalty for a crime is a fine, that’s just *how much it costs to commit that crime.*” Caught speeding down the interstate at 120MPH and get a $200 ticket? Okay, thanks officer, I’ll see you again next week! It’s honestly terrifying to think of how much the most powerful can-and DO-get away with because they can pay their way out of it.

"They are sluggish, they are scarce, and they are grasping. For the very little they do they demand the highest pay." - poet John Gower describing laborers in 1349.

Wasn't the 1860s the same era that the US made slavery illegal?

And the Confederacy fought for state's rights to not be oppressed by the North... In oppressing the slave population. Is it any wonder why people don't take these schmucks seriously?

​@@blondbraid7986The modern riff raff want to work less than 80 hours a week! Hogwash! Bring back indentured servitude!

The reality is that no one wants to work for shit wages anymore - what’s the point of working 40+ hours a week for a job that doesn’t pay enough money to rent a one-bedroom apartment?

I thought this dangerous level work was supposed to be replaced by machines... is investing in machinery to save long term also too expensive? This is what happens when entitled children inherit companies

​@@aesthesia5023The moment it becomes more economically viable for these companies they will do it until then the children have gone back to the mines

yay

yes. he literally said that.

Don't forget the women, the elderly and POC! I am sure they will try to pay us less, too, if they can get away with it. Honestly I'm pretty sure they just want to go back to everyone earning a fraction of what white able bodied young men earn, and to pay almost anyone barely a living wage.

I live in Northern Indiana, not too far away from Elkhart, where representatives of RV companies are known to visit that city's high schools to try and recruit upcoming graduates to work in their assembly lines instead of doing something practical, like going to college or learning a trade.

Wendy's is especially bad. They'll violate food safety as well by forcing employees to come into work sick.

I thought the age limit was 14, so I take it they lowered it in places then, actually a lot of jobs have certain safety requirements regarding children under a certain age, there are some equipment they're not supposed to try to use. A kid actually willing to work to make their own money is a good thing, especially nowadays when you see a lot of lazy 20 something year olds that don't want to work or they want an easy job. Probably the children want to work more than those lazy people do. What a sad condition the US has fallen into.

⁠@@onidaaitsubasa4177 did you watch the video or just made a comment bc he clearly talks about how people are getting smarter and are only working to make a living. He also said that our work rates were highly last year then ever. I also do not think it’s right for a 14 year old to work in a company that age is way to young they haven’t even really experienced the world or anything how is that fair for them in anyway?

​@onidaaitsubasa4177 did you watch the video

Amazing argument, huh? Blows my fucking mind.

@@seanmccabe5619 ah thanks for reminding me of this lol

isn't that how it's always have been. Those who are outside our groups are not human and it's okay to exploit them. People might not say it but that's what they think and how they justify it to themselves.

@@natsudragneel-ir7sr Just like the infamous poem by Martin Niemöller: First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.

As soon as he mentioned it was migrant kids it all made sense. Conservatives don't want to protect them, if anything they probably want to send them back to die in whatever country they fled from.

It's all about money and the bottom line. FDR was the only person to do something about it because he was for the people but every other president/politician just works for their corporate overloads. Regular people can see child labor is bad but if the people leading our country can be legally bribed by corporations then having all the empathy in the world doesn't matter

@@BriannaLearning Blame the voters that why these things exist.

There are other super selfish reasons to care. Child labor frees up labor for zero value added work. Thus helping us make everything cost more, making us all work more, and giving greedy slimey sorts more ways to take more money from the economy. And we are absolutly in a pickle of zero value added's makings. Actual productive work seems to be about 20-40% of work done by labourers. it does get fuzzy because this zero value added work usually does take hold of actual supplies and goods people actually need, they just do not change the actual product in any meaningful way shape or form instead doing things like just adding labels to shoes.

Thank goodness I am simply selfish and not super selfish then.

As far as I understand, it keeps wages down in specific sectors. Not for everyone. For most people, itll probably lead to minimal change but higher prices. It should definitely still be illegal, though. Children shouldn't be working in dangerous jobs

Its a double edged sword. Kids need to learn responsibility and independence, by not at the expense of being taken advantage of by poor parenting

This is exactly the issue. Teens working a little for spending money is a great way to learn responsibility. Teens _having_ to work to support their families in potentially unhealthy conditions is unacceptable.

@@TimeTravelerJessica AND, teens having to work because those same employers fired their parents to employ their kids at a much cheaper rate, is outright wrong.

In Ireland you can work from 14 but only in summer and for limited hours. 16 it increases but still restricted. 18 is when you can work adult hours.

@@OscarOSullivan That was typically how it worked in 2010 for most "teenager" businesses (lifeguarding, umpiring, refereeing, maybe working retail clothing stores in the mall). They are dismantling these protections in the last 5 years or so. Im sure people have examples of this before then, but it wasnt widespread as it is now.

Thank you for calling this out. Human bone and muscle don't fully develop until 25-30. Teens are well cut out for athletics, but long hours of physical labor can damage the body. Healthy fully grown adults ironically do much better at it.

​@@shionyr its the mixture of lifting heavy things, trying to participate in sports not sleeping while your in your development years and still having to do a boatload od homework. Covid really fucked up how much homework aas given out as well. Because teachers werent there to make surd you were participating yhey started giving out like 70 problems on esch homework assignment each week for each class.

@@Name.......... It's a longer term issue than covid, but I agree trying to give anyone any kind of physical labor while they try to balance sports with a full school schedule would be detrimental to their health. I stand beside my point that teens bodies aren't fully developed.

You should be at least 18 to work in a trade. Not even a 17 year old should be working as a builders navvy.

For child labor, 100% is a good start. A start.

If a citizen will force a kid to work a dangerous job that will lead to a loss of a limb, it won't be a fkn fine, you will go to prison.

Corporate fines should also include the calculated amount of profit the business made from whatever illegal practices they pursued. This would be similar to forcing thieves to return the money they stole during their crime. This means that whatever money the company saved by performing illegal practices (instead of acting legally), would disappear AND they would receive a fine as well. This would mean a net loss for the corporation, ensuring that it would be an actual punishment (instead of just an investment cost), and there would be no more money in breaking the law. Unfortunately, actually making sure this is properly implemented, as well as government inspections are frequent and properly done, are completely different hurdles to overcome.

​@@derekstein6193 Good idea, but it wouldn't work in practice. On paper, American corporations always lose money, so basing punishments on profit would just result in $0 fines. Not earning money is how they avoid paying taxes. It's how they magically go bankrupt whenever they get sued. All the money is just funneled into offshore accounts and holding companies.

​@@derekstein6193Too complex and too vague to be enforced. A fine of 25% the CEOs last pay, including options and benefits payed by the CEO / CEOs directly for the first offence, 90% for the second, 100% +2 years jail mandatory minimum for repeats. Not a fine to "the company", because that doesn't mean anything. A fine for the person(s) IN CHARGE. The ones responsible. They make the money in the end, they have to be bear the risk. if said fines are several millions - well, then the treasury might be able to afford more personel to enforce safety standards, audits etc.

Well it is different, because SA is a traumatic experience that affects your life, relationships, and mental stability from that point on until you die. Labor is nothing compared to the pain of SA

@@PraiseTheFSMonster fair enough. Poor phrasing on my part. I still view it as abuse.

@@richardspillers6282 Definitely still abuse

Child labor in factories that break you over 12 hr continuous shifts while you're neglected, abused, and denied your basic human rights in exchange for a meager salary (if a salary at all) is also a traumatic experience that affects your life, relationships and mental stability- probably until you die. You know, due to the fact that it's all happening because they aren't white children with "good american families". Saying that it's no different from sexual abuse isn't saying it's worse than sexual abuse or vice versa. It's saying they are both things that can ruin you as a person, from an age where everything that happens to you is permanently etched into your mind and body. @@PraiseTheFSMonster

​@@PraiseTheFSMonsterAs a child protection worker I would like to point out that the actual sexual abuse doesn't cause most of that. Psychological abuse that goes with it is the main culprit. In terms of long term damage to a child's life it goes neglect, physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, sexual abuse. This is why so many of us campaign for as much recognition be given to the damage of hitting kids as to sexual abuse. I don't know where child labor would fall but I would think there would be emotional and physical abuse associated with it

Bold of you to assume that sort of person, isn't also probably a shitty parent to their own kids. The only kids they care about are the convenient imaginary ones they can have as an excuse.

Who would define a pizza box chain as "corporate America" lmfao

​@@joyhappiness How would u define America then?

Yeah i was working at one when they hired 4 diffrent 16 yesr olds we had more teens than adults working night shift. Got my job in security and got out

lets step back a second, I would define the pizza box chain as literally bottom of the barrel, on the same tier as walmart and target. it isn't a "real job", it's literally skill-less slave labor that you get as a teen and/or in-between jobs or during schooling.@@microvvaveoven

​@@joyhappiness think about who OWNS those pizza chains? Ever heard of Blackrock? Yeah Blackrock owns MOST of every item in a grocery store, but oh its only a chain company...until you dig deeper~ our GOV is bought out just waiting for that back of the camel to break because OH BOY people are close!

Child labor is brought to you by people who burn books.

Exactly! Working early reduces education access in general. Working during the years you're supposed to be learning reduces one's ability to move up the economic ladder, and often results in those who are already higher up on the economic ladder moving down. Working during your child years is often put in the guise of "getting a leg up on income". "You'll make more money in the long run working minimum wage than going into debt for college". Often times this only sets up the child for a lifetime of struggling in the retail, food service, or whatever they can get in the gig economy.

@@jesseorellana5339So what about summer jobs during high school?

It's not just about understanding - they may not always have much choice as they don't have much in the way of rights since they are immigrants due to all the "tought on immigration" bs that both parties are doing. You have the same thing with trafficking, people get stuck in horrible conditions in illegal activity but because the legal protection is so shit it's hard to break out because you risk making things even worse due to risk of yourself/friends/relatives getting deported/arrested to even worse conditions.

The war on education by the right has rendered "education" impotent and inadequate.

The free market is only suposed to make labour cheaper, when it is working the other way around it's something wrong.

That or people are just tired of being treated like crap

But the thing is, the "free hand of the market" is a concept that really only exists for those already rich and powerful in the capitalistic market. It's just another bullshit concept that supposedly will adjust the capitalistic system, but really is just a foil that allows grifting people at the top to keep doing awful things, while claiming to be doing the opposite.

@@SleepyMatt-zzzThere's no protection for the workers in USA, in Texas my former employer stole money from me and I can't do anything against because Texas is a Right to Work state where he as a business owner hold all the cards and can deny me my work experience just because he dislike my attitude when I confront him about his misconducts.

@@SleepyMatt-zzz The invisible ass of the free market crapping out workers into higher paying jobs. No wonder they're surprised, it's invisible.

Thank you for not doing the survivorship bias thing, and coming to the conclusion that, "Well, I did it, so the next generation should have to, as well." It's an easy trap to fall into, and I know all of us have, at some point. But, I appreciate you not doing that. ✌🏻

I seen grown health men die of heat stroke doing roofing in Florida. I would not wish that job on my worst enemy. Ashley if you're doing torso in a commercial as that like litterly working in an oven all day

Damn. I remember roofing in Canada. For lunch we would put hot dogs in tin foil and put them on the roof to cook them. Can't imagine Tennessee.

@@Acidfunkishas a fellow survivor, i appreciate you calling that out. i see it with a lot of abuse survivors and suspect it is a coping mechanism gone too far. but it is one thing to deny one's own pain, and quite another to ignore another's. ❤

@@Acidfunkish I did heavy construction work starting around age 10 back in the 1970s. Back then, most states provided 'exemptions' for underage workers in construction. When 15, I had the responsibility of moving around 300 lbs stages (which BTW messes up an adult's back when it's fully formed, let alone what it does to a growing spine). I came from a poor family and believed it was my responsibility to help support my parents. In doing so, lost out of being a kid. (I did put myself through college and graduate school through multiple jobs and mindtearing loans which impacted my life for years, however the concept of student debt is extraneous to this discussion) I was lucky enough to hang out with a wonderful mentor when 18 who would say that in spite of problems we could experience in life, part of what made us human was we had the ability to change that. It's one reason why I've always believed that NO child (even those in high school) should feel required to work and if they do should be paid the same as adults. Finally, adults should be able to be paid a reasonable wage for their work, so they don't feel it necessary to ask their underage children for help. I find it atrocious that the wealthy like to blame the poor for supposed lack of discipline for being poor when the reality is the poor work at a level that would put most wealthy people in graves. My experiences have led me not only to advocate for the poor as much as possible, but I give to food banks and assistance programs as much as I can as well. My job takes up too much time for me to physically build houses, but I try to provide as much assistance as I can. This is my attempt to honor words from someone I trusted a lot as a child, "If we don't look out for one another, who will?" Successful companies are allowed to make profits, but a sacrosanct bottom line that cannot be touched for any reason is inhuman, not merely inhumane.

I don't think it's a lack of remembering, its a lack of caring.

I got mistreated at my job when I was younger by a couple of "ladies" who thought it was fun to verbally attack me for no good reason and make me cry. Thank God for this sweet lady who came out to see if I was all right and encouraged me. She was a *true* Christian!

True, but I don't even see teenagers working at McDonalds anymore. I don't think I've seen anyone under the age of 25 working in fast foot since I was a teenager more than dozens of years ago.

@@ScooterinAB Wait, you haven’t? More than half the people at my high school worked at places like McDonald’s, Starbucks, etc. and I just graduated. Where on earth do you live that has no teens working at fast food?

@@elokin300 I'm really not seeing kids working in fast food. It's a lot of adult ethnic workers (not that that's a problem). This is why I find complaints about wage increases so terrible. We're not talking about little Billy wanting more money. We're talking about a grown adult who may have a family and took this job because that's all they could get.

Well then you better go after the politicians that made it possible

Straight into the meat grinder

Every tshirt u wore bro

No offends meant, because you did not decide that, bet currently your jails are occupied with children that lost it.

Maybe if the politicians and execs who currently profit off of child labor went to prison to experience their own labor being exploited for little-to-no wages they might actually push for legislation to prevent child and prison (slave) labor

Nice SW reference! Really works well here.

@@ironmammoth7 what does SW stand for here?

@@minestar2247 Star Wars Episode 1 Darth Sidious tells the trade federation, "I will make it legal!"

@@ironmammoth7 oh Yeah, forgot about the trade deal parts, Palpatine should have done more evil things like that

He will probably botch the Senate on the procedures

Somebody's catching on✔

Dont worry, children will form a Child Labor union and fight for their right to work. #leftisbest

This is what happens when you let mega corporation exist to begin with.

it was the American people who started this in a functioning democracy. The market being flooded with cheats and abusers is after the fact. As usual you can blame this one on brat boomers who couldn't afford to fuel up their hippy van, so they voted in favor of inept authoritarianism because it came with a car-salesman like pitch to give them what they thought they were entitled to. Fucking Regan and a thousand fat and happy "me-generation" twats threw out a careful democratic and economic system because Saudis underproduced oil prices and made it harder for Americans to get into town and spend their money.

Lobbying

Not "want"... "Need" They know they can't survive without it.

USAmericunts only want slavery. You stole half of Mexico only because slavery.

@@DoremiFasolatido1979 they can survive without it, they would just not make as much money, and that to them is worse than death.

@@natsudragneel-ir7sr Nope, they really can't. They'd cannibalize one another at this stage. And a true global monopoly would crash with catastrophic rapidity. They cannot continue to exist even WITH slave labor. Eventually even that won't be enough. There's only one outcome for capitalism. It's just a question of how long it takes. But the end will be the same no matter what. The issue here, is that if they don't keep doing what they're doing with all this...that end might come within the tenure of the presiding CEOs and such. And they can't allow that. They don't really give a shit if it happens to their successors, though.

I’m waiting for the return of company stores.

Reading this shattered my heart because I had a very similar adolescence. It hit so close to home. I’m so angry for anyone who has been a victim of shit like this, I’m so, so sorry. You did not deserve it, at all! You do not deserve to be in pain, the injustice of it all is rage inducing. At age 12-13, after my mother had died and wasn’t there to protect me, I was forced into working by my cruel father. He didn’t need the money or anything, him and his new wife just didn’t want to pay for anything for me. The took the money I earned in the form of charging me rent. They used it to jet off on luxury holidays. My work wasn’t necessarily back breaking labour, I was a waitress and barista working 10-12 hour shifts in a cafe in flat, flimsy shoes on hard concrete that fucked up my feet. I wasn’t allowed to sit down. I had onset symptoms of my at the time undiagnosed chronic illness that put me in terrible pain every day that got exponentially worse due to stress, injury and abuse. I wouldn’t be anywhere near as immobile now as an adult if people had just given a shit back then. Instead I was seen as a silly teen girl, lying for attention. What I actually was, was a teen girl with undiagnosed “high functioning” autism and adhd who was terrified of people due to a life time of brutal bullying and abuse. Who was grieving the death of her mother. Who was still a little girl being sexually and psychologically abused by her boss. I wasn’t allowed to leave my job. The signs were there, adults just ignored them out of convenience. For 6 miserable years there wasn’t a single hour of my day that I owned, people who didn’t go through something like this don’t quite understand how much that fucks with a person. I did my homework during my breaks at work. I barely ate or slept. If I wasn’t working or studying I was doing chores and getting mistreated at home. I had no friends, no hobbies, no clubs or extracurriculars. I didn’t know who I was as a person. I was such a lonely and scared little girl and I was in a constant, perpetual state of exhaustion and misery. I unequivocally wished to no longer exist by age 14. On the way to work I would fantasise about lying down to die in a patch of peaceful forest that I could see from the window of the bus. I want to stress to anyone reading this that barely anyone noticed and if they did notice then they made excuses to not care. I share this so other people become aware of how much being raised like this destroys a person, that what tiny amount of money I made from this, the skills I got? It simply wasn’t worth what it cost me. I finally escaped and clawed my way out of there at 17 and my life has been definitely a LOT happier but it was all just too little too late. I struggled immensely those first few years and my illness went undiagnosed until I was 21. It’s incurable. I’ll be in pain forever. I need to take opiate based painkillers to walk around my home. I’d be dead if I hadn’t gotten really lucky and made incredibly generous friends at uni who helped me and now live with me. I never finished my degree due to becoming sick, I now live on disability and have no future. My abusers get to enjoy their lives though. They got to have their dream wedding, jet off on luxury holidays and go travelling. They own their home, a home I partially paid for, and it will never be taken from them. They’ve paid it off, they get to renovate it. They do work that they’re proud of and are beloved in their community, surrounded by endless love. These are things I don’t have, some of them I can’t have. I didn’t get to enjoy my life as a teen, now as an adult who will be in pain forever from an incurable illness, I will never get the chance to even try. My siblings got to enjoy their lives, my mother protected them and now they’re flourishing as adults. I didn’t get that. Not at all. They don’t understand why I’m so sad and angry. People don’t realise that abuse victims rarely get happy endings. Especially disabled ones. They don’t realise that abusers have great lives in comparison because it was built off of the backs of the people they exploited. They don’t realise that victims of abuse are often punished by society for our shortcomings. That’s just the reality of things. I wish it wasn’t. It doesn’t HAVE to be this way, I wish I had the power to fight to change it. In the meantime I’ll use the last drops of my energy to aggressively fight for children’s rights. I refused to have what happened to me happen to another young soul. This needs to stop! I’m so glad people like Adam who have such a huge platform are speaking out to prevent more children from having their futures snatched from their hands and burned in front of them. I hope something changes soon. It has to. I really do hope your life is good in spite of your parent’s abuse and in spite of your pain. A good life full of love is what you deserve. I hope your parents encounter grievous amounts of misfortune and pay immensely for what they did to you. What they did was unforgivable, don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t be angry about it. That you should even express gratitude about it. There is nothing good about what happened to you.

​@@BriarBeeBensonAgain, 🫂, gently. What your parents and other adults did to you is unforgivable. They may be living it up now, but I believe that they will answer one day for all the evil they did to you, and as much luxury and good things they had in this life, it will all be forgotten with the suffering they will be made to endure for eternity. You, my friend, are like Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. God sees and He *will* avenge! Believe it! I'm praying for you to be healed, but thank God you have kind friends who are helping you out. That's God working to heal you from the abuse and to help you with giving you a desire to fight for others. Don't lose hope or faith, sister. You are not forgotten!!❤ Okay? Love you!

Quinn, hugs to you, honey! You didn't deserve the abuse and horror you went through. You're a precious individual, never forget that! Praying for you! Hugs🫂❤️

Goddamn. That just ain't right. Parents need to stop acting like they own their kids, and need to wise up to the fact that they are their kids' guardians. It's a duty that can (and should) be taken away from them if they demonstrate that they aren't able to perform it acceptably.

same for me but at 12 years old. my boomer parents said kids now a days are lazy and it was for my own good. Found out they did NOT work like this when they were 12. The lazy kids, that was them!

I think it's the reverse- people who are so willing and eager to do this awful shit to people are the ones who rise to the top in this kind of fucked up system because money is the only metric corps care about and they know they can exploit children way easier.

Why do you "think" that? It's obvious that it is the truth lol. Just because someone doesn't say the quiet part out loud doesn't mean their fondling of the quiet part is magically not true.

These political issues we’re divided on are red herrings to keep us divided. Divided we fall. We don’t see the real problems. Where I live I bought a very nice home in 2008 for $50k. Wages are still very similar. Houses are now $400k and being bought by corporations to be rented out. Or bought by our rich seasonal residents. The best jobs here are supporting the rich. Building their houses, supporting their infrastructure and with those jobs you can barely scrape by. We can’t address those issues while we’re arguing over whether a mother can get a lifesaving abortion or whether trans people can exist. We’re being fed propaganda to keep us divided and nobody cares because we love the drama.

You can be against abusive child labor and trafficking and killing the innocent. It's not an either/or.

Considering that many children have been given puberty-blocking drugs which will permanently alter their physiology, or been subjected to disfiguring surgeries such as having their breasts removed, I don't see it as a "Boogeyman", but a subject of sincere concern.

concern trolling @@bitterbonker

Keep the masses poor & uneducated. Kids who are educated “tend” to recognize the bad situation they’re in and don’t stand for it.

And you *still* found a way in your rotten tribal mind to bring it back to party lines. You are part of the problem - this is a bipartisan issue.

Working small jobs on a farm with your family who care about you is not the same as child labor for a corporation that does not know your name. Please do not act like the two are remotely the same.

My friend people on the side of red never said kids younger than 13 should be working they said teenage kids who are 16 of age do not want to not work for a living since the work paid hours for the price of living is not enough to go by today's standards.please learn to fact check.

​@@AbicatedAgreed and the data for average farm kids is surprisingly safe. Where the data turns is when you factor in all the Amish and Mennonite kids doing things they have no business doing but sadly their parents don't know any better either sometimes. My parents made sure I had school work done and enough sleep and that I wanted to help, never expected me to. I took safety classes and was only given age appropriate tasks too.

Im always worried Adam is going to be shut down somehow for speaking out against the government

Then the entire world is fucked.

But capitalism is Liberty. Money is power and it protects my freedom.

@@CSwagRebelion If protecting your freedoms requires subjugating others, then fuck your freedom

​@@MLBlue30i mean given the situation, yeah the world IS FUCKED

Aren't all countries run by money?

God. It's happening in Germany too? 😮 Now I'm wondering what's happening here in Canada. 😢

@@katherinemclean1448 It is not happening in Germany. The German news has talked about it happening in the USA and Germans have asked me about it.

Quebec just passed a child labour law 14 is rhe minimum age with lots of restrictions. 16 is basically the minimum age, now.

God damn after loosing the energy war Germany may actually employ children as coal miners

They reallly need to be on our workers wages 7.25 wont cut it and im on my own for the first time im having a hard time on one income and on 13.50 after 11 years working at the same place I cant really do to much my dates if i can have one is things like 5 below T_T

It wasn't that long ago when 18 olds successfully argued that "if they're old enough to fight a war, they should be able to Vote". That's a Constitutional Amendment, by the way. I don't recall which one because the people who want to hire children, also spend their Reaganomics Tax Cuts on hiring professors of failing colleges (like Hillsdale) to insist that we _"get back to the original Constitution_ (you know; the one without those pesky Amendments when Senators were appointed inside Washington instead of selected by Voters, for example)". Even fans of the 2nd Amendment have a dog in this fight.

It’s normal. Capitalism working as intended. Most child labour/slavery is still exported, think of cocoa, cobalt or cloth production across the globe. If you want change, you need to get rid of capitalism...

We should legislate the child rights thing a lot of UN countries have. Because they signed a treaty. But no.

Child labor and child slaves are a very Christian thing lets not forget the dominant religion in these areas. Sure the corporation don't care about religion but those who send their kids to work do.

@@alexcardosa8079 that's what I'm saying, this is a problem of how the church shapes our laws, including our labor laws. this is and has always been the problem of religious influence on legislation. our very founding document listing the rights of all people, is based on how those rights are given to us by God. God is cool with slavery.

But also, to criticize you for getting a "useless degree" and tell you to quit complaining about student loans.

forced labor is forced labor, even if it's your parents forcing you to do it.

I was raised on a farm. My parents had kids so they didn't have to hire employees. It's not like I ever had the option to call in sick or quit. It was an obligation, it was hell. It also sucked to grow up and not have time to spend with friends outside of school, or see lazy brats that had infinitely more than me.

@@carpeXnoctem12 my dad was in the same situation as you and he hated working on a farm. he likes being a city person now.

@@carpeXnoctem12I was going to point this problem out myself, when I read the comment by @richardthompson8666 . It's a flaw in our child labor protections that people are allowed to employ their own children, but children aren't allowed to work for an actual wage. So effective child *slavery* is legal, it's only employment we frown on, apparently. Basically, all of that needs to be banned equally. Forcing your kids to labor for hours on the family farm is no less abusive and exploitative than employing other people's children in a factory.

@@RilianSharp Ehh, not so sure I agree there. Dangerous jobs should only be undertaken by competent people. Children are still growing and learning so by nature are not competent.

Well, if you want to avoid the exploitation of kids, don't get mixed up in the left (LGBTQ+ grooming, the backlash against The Sound of Freedom (anti-child trafficking's message), "MAPS" more honestly known as podophiles somewhat successfully seeking asylum in woke culture and trying to weasel their way into LGBTQ+).

I heard Adam's show on TruTV, "Adam Ruins Everything," was cancelled by the new CEO the moment he took over. Methinks that scab was pjssed off by Adam's blatant audacity to speak truth against corrupted power. Which means they scared, and Adam is doing something right.

Just remember, since 2008 Democrats have received more corporate funding than Republicans, and also more Dark Money.

​@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14learn how to write

@@kevingriener7441 there i fixed my structure happy.

I pay more in rent than that fine was. That's pathetic.

the people saying they can't find good workers absolutely do. They can't find even people to interview because their wages combined with their absurd expectations turn everybody away. If they had decent expectations then people would show up and they wouldn't have the justification they want for chipping away at child labor laws.

That's the American way. Man child for US President.

@@Midala87 no, the American way can't be this disappointing, can it?

Right. You pay more until you get the workers you need. Where I live even Walmart and McDonalds are hiring at around $18/hr (20% over minimum) so they can get the workers they need. Of course, my state still has solid child labor laws and actually enforces them, so the companies have no choice. But they also seem to have no problem staying in business.

@@minestar2247 Not only is it just disappointing, but it is geared to actively harm those who are unable to pay the wages of the people in Washington who tend to screw the population over more than they ever seem to help.

No, both situations are bullshit. Being the legal property of adults and not being allowed to say no to them is bullshit. I don’t care if it’s clocking in at work or a child being a live-in maid, neither child here has a choice. It’s not about who has it worse or “but one of them is done out of love”, I don’t give a shit what the intention is or how gentle the coercion was, it’s still children being forced into labour against their will which is indefensible. It’s about how children not having basic human rights like autonomy and agency, the right to say “no” to adults, is abhorrent and disgusting and is how shit like this happens. Children should have the freedom to do labour for themselves, to do things, like chores, because they deserve care! Not because authority said so, not because “or else”, not purely for the convenience of selfish adults. For THEMSELVES. Because they are humans and deserve to be treated as such! No ifs and no buts, human rights aren’t up for debate. Humanity should not be conditional. You cannot put little exceptions into place because that is exactly how this happens! Because the greed of adults cannot be kept in check. If children are property and aren’t allowed to say no or leave in response to their parents ordering them like a dog to do chores, then they’re not going to be allowed to say no to their parents forcing them to do labour they or other adults can monetise for no compensation either. It needs to be a hard ban, you do NOT own these people. Owning a human is violence. No exceptions. All children should have the freedom to say “no, I don’t want to do that” without the threat of being subjected to violence, humiliation, having their possessions stolen or being isolated. I don’t care if saying “no” has negative natural consequences, they should be allowed to experience them then. Leaving should always be allowed. Saying no should always be allowed. No exceptions. Any child “agreeing” to do any of kind of labour an adult orders them to do are not consenting, they’re *complying.* That’s why kids can’t consent! They know their needs or wants just fine, but they’re not allowed to give an answer that adults view as unfavourable, because adults will hurt them otherwise. One way or another they will be coerced into barking “yes sir” like a trained animal and scurry off to do their task that only benefits authority. Authority which have done nothing to earn their position as a leader. It doesn’t matter how gentle a parent is about it, it’s still oppression and exploitation. That’s what happens when a human has no choice but to rely on someone for their survival and don’t have the option to just leave and choose who they associate themselves with. That’s what happens when children are viewed to be objects their parents own who purely exist for the convenience and enjoyment of adults. Who don’t exist purely for themselves. If they did then they wouldn’t need to be threatened into doing labour, they’d just do it without prompting. If they can’t then that’s a different problem that can’t be solved with coercion or violence. Contrary to bullshit popular beliefs humans are not inherently lazy, we actually LIKE work and doing little tasks, just not at the expense of our wellbeing and just not purely for someone else. You do not need to coerce or threaten a human into learning or doing care tasks, we do that on our own. There is no reason that will justify treating children in this way. It’s indefensible.

A monster or incredibly naive and ill-informed (which helps the monster). Poor kids know what work is, and know people who work their butts off. Migrant kids also know what work is. What both sets of children need are safe homes and decent educations, followed by jobs that pay well. Anything else is utter bollocks.

@@SlothShower Well the problem is that Children _aren't_ in any Unions, no?💀💀

Replace the word "community" with "the elite offsprings."

@@Echo81Rumple83that's their community, his point still stands

That's why there's no political backlash for abusing immigrants. Joe Average Voter grows very angry if they see 'their' people being abused. But someone else, someone distant and who isn't like Joe, there's just not that much empathy.

We’ve been trained to think like this. We need to keep working to untrain ourselves.

And only the children in that community who conform to their expectations.

GOOD POINT.

I’m sorry that you had to work as a kid like that.

@@Mugiwara2k Awww, that is nice of you to say. Other than the bouncing checks/not giving me the correct amount I didn't have a problem with it. I didn't know any better but it definitely made school a lot harder. I was getting about 3-4hrs of sleep after homework and I would sleep all day on my day off. I would sometimes fall asleep in class and teachers called on me more knowing I feel asleep often in class (Except for one nice teacher who knew I worked late).

​@@TheOfficialTarynTotsWhat was the job? Just curious.

@@TheOfficialTarynTotsyou’re literally describing exactly what my teen years were like! There wasn’t a single hour of my time that I owned, I didn’t even get to enjoy the money I earned, it went straight into my father’s pockets or paying for basic needs. My father forced me to work from 13 despite himself not having any money troubles, him and his wife were just being selfish. I was a teen girl and my boss was sexually abusing me and I wasn’t allowed to quit and didn’t even know what he was doing was wrong because I wasn’t allowed to say “no” to *any* adult, it never occurred to me that I had the option and I blamed myself for my abuse. I was terrified of my boss but even more scared of being fired and facing my father’s anger and having no money for period products or to pay for school uniform. It was a miserable 6-7 years of my life that I’ll just never get back, I mourn the future I could have had if adults hadn’t abused me in my formative years. My boss abused me, my father and his wife abused me, my colleagues brutally bullied me, I was treated like the worst child on earth when I tried so hard to please everyone and do exactly as I was told. It was NEVER enough! I was seen as a mini adult with bad intentions, a latent criminal and was hated for it. Everywhere I went I was mistreated and constantly working and in a state of perpetual misery and exhaustion. At 23 I’m now a broken adult who can’t work at all despite how hard I tried to get a degree. I ended up sick with an incurable illness brought on by years of being abused and I’ll be in pain for the rest of my life. I don’t even know who I am. I have no identity because I was never allowed to develop one. I never even got a chance to try. I cannot stress enough to anyone insisting teenagers should work to “develop their skills” or whatever how that’s such a catastrophically bad idea that is! Especially if that teenager is a girl, adults will be vile towards her. It’s something that will benefit no one but greedy adults wanting to exploit children. You learn nothing but how to accept abuse from authority and that you deserve it and that you own none of your time and fighting for your own rights is futile and wrong. I don’t care if a teen is getting work experience (won’t help them in the future either, getting a career is mostly done via networking) or learning new skills or getting a little bit of extra money, it’s just never worth that risk. No amount of money or experience is worth risking subjecting a teenager to abuse that will take a life time to heal from. Never.

Other than the child labor I had an employer like that. When my paycheck bounced the first time my boss pretended that it was the first time it ever happened. When my bank refused my paychecks the payday places told me that my work was blacklisted. I had to get my boss to pay me in cash after that.

When I was 16, I worked at a place that never gave me a break. This was a sit down locally owned restaurant.

Good on you for refusing to put up with that! My workplace (in Canada) is not heaven but we do have a union (albeit a weak one) and so we definitely get our breaks. Sometimes they're late in the shift but we get 'em.

@@mnirwin5112 I don’t even know if I fully quit or not. I would take breaks in the restroom since it would be weird to force a worker out of one. They would not even be that long. Ten minutes at max! One of people that owned the joint just started knocking at the door and said for me to go home for the day. I then chose to not go back. I was either fired or I quit. I honestly don’t know, nor do I care to know. That was an awful workplace. Also, good on you for making sure you got your breaks.

@@JackedSchoomves Oddly enough, in most states, most jobs for people over the age of 16 have no mandatory break laws. There might be company policy, but no laws. They can work a 17 year old 16 hours in a day without a break and it's legal most places.

@@matts1166 that’s shitty. I think Virginia has a law that mandates that minors that are 16 or 17 to be given breaks if they work long hours like 4 pm to 10 pm, but I could be wrong.

Let's be real, not even our own kids

It goes back much further than that. 1789 is the point at which people lost the last bit of control they had over government in this country.

​@@MrMagnanimanAmerica was never great.

@@MLBlue30 "Great" is a pretty subjective term. Are you fishing for conservatives to have a pointless internet argument with?

Thats what happens when schools are for intoctrination and not educating of their civic rights. Those kids should sue, or file for CPS

That's precisely why that WON'T happen.

Who are companies going to exploit then?

their parents are already legally obligated to provide what they need. Don't frame this as children taking jobs to make ends meet, that is not what is happening. They take the jobs because their loser parents make them take them. The jobs exist because swindlers are allowed to rule the roost in an unregulated market. Lack of market regulations is even grounds only for cheats and liars.

I’m sick of this liberal lie that gainful employment is somehow “exploitation.” Real exploitation is the grooming committed by the liberal media.

Why just for children?

You just learned about illegal immigration? Not trying to make this political, but ALL these kids were undocumented migrants using stolen ID's at staffing agencies (which provided them). The solution is to create a foolproof verification system or mandatory finger printing; can't fine companies that use a staffing agency but legally can't check ID without violating the law.

Sad part is, in some of the places these people are fleeing, it seems a better option.

Dunno man, if you can be outperformed by a child, or a robot, you're probably going to struggle in life.

@@whitewinterresorts7679 Its not about performance. Its literally about paying people less. They couldnt care less if the child does less work, when they pay a fraction of the wages, they can hire more kids.Kids are also generally more easy to exploit in the workplace because they dont know what should or shouldnt be happening to them. This is one of the reasons child labour was gotten rid of to start with!

@@whitewinterresorts7679 OR it's that using their children as employees, and not having to hire an adult and pay them properly and provide benefits is the issue, not whatever your poor reading comprehension led you to.

It is sad to see kids overworked in the family business. I've seen many a farm kid that's missed school because of work. But at least in those cases there is investment. The child is being exploited yes but with the promise of more. They will either own that business one day (which makes it like old school apprenticeships) or at least the family will put them through college with the money saved by their labor. What these companies are doing is like slavery, verses the kid working the register at dads shop being an endentured servant. This topic doesn't get enough attention, glad for this video

@@robertt3715 My statement "if you can be outperformed by a child, or a robot, you're probably going to struggle in life" works on its own, regardless of context or perceived comprehension skills. I'm genuinely interested in who child labour laws are for. Aside from egregious examples (chimney sweep, cobalt miner, child soldier etc) I am far from convinced it is in children's best interest to not be participating in the labour force. Take the OP's example. Running a small business is tough and the hours are long. Most fail because most people grossly underestimate what it takes. If you also have a family, having kids join you in the work is one of the few ways you get to spend time with your children. The quality of that time comes down to the idiosyncrasies of the family and the business, and while government can certainly put up broad protections against exploitation, every situation will be different. Children working part time from a young age is an integral part of a broad and meaningful education serving to both enhance their other academic, cultural and social growth, and give them experience in making a valuable contribution to a community and society.

yankeeland was made out of ruthless exploitation of slaves, no matter the color of their skin or if they were "free". Until the mass strikes and labor laws, Now white people (and blacks to some extent) are on a better place. (latin) Americans? nope, nobody cares. Everyone is too entertained to notice

You seem to be under the assumption that it is only unattended immigrant kids.

Someone said America is a third world country in a Gucci belt, I believe it

@@Emiliapocalypse There is nothing to be believed it is true. There is nothing better to describe what america is

The UN doesn't do anything. It's just a place where people go to lie about how great they are and how awful their enemies are.

It's about putting dangerous people in a tiny room were they don't get to injure themselves or others

@@acacacacacacaccaca7666 The question is, who is considered more "dangerous?" a teenager with a harmful addiction, or a megalomaniac with practically unlimited wealth, the ability to sway their own public image, and the ability to lobby the government to change policies?

@@onlirier2993 the person who has already committed a crime

@@acacacacacacaccaca7666 Well, that's the entire point, isn't it? My claim was that the justice system is ill-equipped to prosecute the actual committed white-collar crimes, which are deprioritized by the "fight crime" narrative pushed by the media, which instead focuses on "disorderly" crimes such as drug use and shoplifting rather than crimes of true injustice such as, say, promoting and using child labor on a systemic scale. The people who have already committed the more dangerous crimes are not being dealt with effectively.