Louisiana lawmakers vote to remove lunch breaks for child workers, cut unemployment benefits

Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 456 points –
Louisiana lawmakers vote to remove lunch breaks for child workers, cut unemployment benefits
nola.com
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I really can't think of a quippy response to this. The cruelty is flabbergasting. They're actively campaigning for future generations to be worse off than they are.

I can't get over the quote from the bills author when he says "Give me a break". In my district in the last election there were 3 candidates running for the state Legislature and they all tried to out conservative eqch other.

First-term state Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, who sponsors the child labor measure and owns Smoothie King franchises across the Deep South, said people have been too critical of his bill. “The wording is ‘we’re here to harm children.’ Give me a break," he says. "These are young adults.”

This is the quote and it's appalling.

owns Smoothie King franchises across the Deep South

Ahhhh, so he's just looking for fast food slaves. Got it.

As if that makes it better. "Oh it's not children who are suffering but young adults who are suffering! Phew! Never mind, then!"

People are LYING! We're NOT trying to harm Children! We're trying to harm Young Adults!

-That guy.

He needs to be removed from office by force if necessary. And we need fucking law that you have give up your business to run and hold political office. Fuck this scumbag.

Thanks. I went to get the quote and the article was behind a paywall. This guy probably can't figure iut why he has high employee turnover.

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Give me a break

What an amazing choice of words

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They're actively campaigning for future generations to be worse off than they are.

Just the ones who weren't born into massive inherited wealth gathered by systemic exploitation. Ie none of their friends or family be affected.

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Gotta love how these old fucks are pulling the ladder from behind and making decisions for us when they won't even be alive to see its effects on society. Fucking hell at some point something has got to fucking give.

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How are people okay with this?

People don't have to be okay with it. Just the 20% of the population who votes for these assholes. Our system of government makes sure a minority can rule as long as their population density is sufficiently low.

I don't know if you're from Louisiana but the percentage of voters electing these guys is much higher than 20%.

I'm from Louisiana. This person is referring to the abysmal voter turnout. They said 20% of the population, not 20% of the voters.

Given that only about 36% of the eligible voting population even turned out to vote, this is accurate.

With that turnout it literally only takes 20% of the population to enable shit like this.

Australia had a bad turnout once and the illegitimate government got tired of being rightfully called illegitimate and said from now on everyone votes, and it helped a little bit.

That might help here, except that Republicans actively label attempts to raise the voter turnout as a Democrat power grab, and Republicans are the only ones with any power. It'll never happen

I always wondered how it came about, Wws the govt that introduced it rewarded by being proven to be illegitimate? I could easily imagine they'd get pounded at the next election just for forcing people to come out and vote when they'd rather not!

Forcing kids to work without Lunch Breaks, Water Breaks or any Labor protections is called PROTECTING THE CHILDREN!

Fun fact: the Democratic governor’s term ran out, the MAGAt governor is in and the brake lines on the republiQan Cruelty Machine have been cut. Expect more insanity than normal.

The extreme capitalists are just doing this kind of evil to see if they can at this point. They must get a good laugh out of it every time some crazy red state legislature hands them a victory they never even thought they had a chance of receiving.

The extreme capitalists

I mean, capitalism is "profit at any cost".

Market economies — properly regulated — are great. Capitalism is their malignant form. And the amount of regulation needed for then to function properly could arguably be defined as market socialism.

Remember folks: BoTh SiDeS!

...ffs

Wait--i thought this was the work of Democrats. You're telling me Republicans are trying to take away child workers' lunch breaks and pay them less??!?

That actually makes a lot more sense. The fuckers won't do anything to benefit the common citizen, they're too busy coming up with ways to fuck children and fuck with children's lives (I'm starting to understand their rationale behind the abortion ban, gotta keep the pipeline flowing)

Careful, the right-wing propaganda network likes to get comments like this banned. At least in other political communities where they control the narrative.

Folks in red states must love being shit on, but immigrants and blue city crime - never mind that there is way more crime in red states. So they get all scared and vote against their interests, over and over, and over.

Not to mention all the money siphoned out of blue states to keep the red states funded.

Yes it's time to boycott smoothie king

Y'all can afford smoothie king? Last time I was there I think my smoothie cost something like $9, and that was pre-covid.

They dropped half their flavors too, you either get generic protein shake or banana based fruit smoothie in 5 variations.

This is giving so many Oliver Twist vibes that you’d think it’s a parody.

Usually these stories go like “Let’s give the child workers lunch breaks” and you find the mandatory “There should be no child labor in the first place” in the comments, next to a link to the orphan-crushing machine.

This feels like a meta-joke. Instead of adding a little good to something horrible, they add appalling to horrible. I actually checked if this was the onion posting or if the post is from April 1st, but no; it’s just the United States. XD Good luck to all of you.

Yo gen alpha getting lined up for the slaughter rn jfc

I really don’t understand why they’re so sinister.

They hate themselves very, very much. They hate others even more. Et voilá!

There is some absolutely hilarious material in here, were it instead fictional.

First-term state Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, who sponsored the child labor measure and owns Smoothie King franchises across the Deep South, said he filed the bill in part because children want to work without having to take lunch breaks.

"I keep trying to give them lunch breaks but they insist on doing what's in the best interest my pocket lining!"

And my favorite, also from Roger Wilder:

“The wording is ‘We’re here to harm children.’ Give me a break," he said. "These are young adults.”

Could you imagine the delivery of this line, with just the right amount of pause after "give me a break" and the right expression to the camera if this were said on something like Parks and Rec?

Lmao my god... isn't the implication then that they're here to harm the young adults? He didn't say give me a break we're not here to harm anyone.

Republicans hate trans and cis kids alike. They were never pro life in the first place.

Pro life, as long as those lives improve our stock portfolios.

Workers of the world unite. Sit in. Strike. Seize the means of production.

Eventually enough will be enough, and that will be a terrible day.

No war but the class war.

Headline makes this look like a law was passed. It passed committee and is going to the floor for a vote. And then the Senate. And then the governor's desk. This is far from being a done deal.

9 of 10, or more, outrageous headlines are like this around here. Yet I would wager every one of you thinks a law was passed from reading the headline.

The point is to show the disgusting behavior of Republican politicians, that they would even THINK of proposing such horrible laws, while prancing around pretending to be good Christians and "protecting" the people

Given the makeup of the Legislature and who our current Governor is this is pretty much a done deal.

On a party line vote, this is a done deal. You haven't been paying attention to Louisiana politics, I take it? They're in a phase right now of revenge passing whatever right wing bills they can because, for the first time in 8 years, we have a republican governor who won't stop them.

Why the fuck are they even trying to pass it though? Shouldn't they be working on something to help people? How is this kind of law benefiting anyone but the employers?

Just curious: what do you think of this law?