Child Labour

So, the US government is poised to make a monumental mistake. The Obama Administration is pushing a bill through Congress that will make child labour on family farms illegal. Individuals under 18 years of age could not work for recompense in places like grain elevators, auction markets, livestock exchanges, feed yards, grain silos, grain bins, etc. First off, the level of government intrusion here is massive. It is my own opinion that the government has no authority over what children can or cannot do for their families in regard to rural lifestyles. This bill passes all boundaries of privacy for rural, hard working Americans, and goes to the level of telling an Auction Mart operator his son or daughter cannot work pens or clerk a sale until they are a legal age.

Rosie Templeton, of The Absolutely Agriculture Blog,
 doing work that may become illegal in the USA.
http://www.realagriculture.com/2011/06/does-4-h
-desensitize-kids-to-killing-a-4-h-alumnis-response/

This is a prime example of how urban, modern politicians simply do not understand the lives of rural constituents. It makes it very obvious that the American governmental machine is forgetting its rural routes, forgetting the demographic that provides nourishment to the people of the nation. A bill such as this was never even dreamed of in decades past, when the farming family was a picture of success. Farming is not a two-person endeavour. It is simply not possible to make money with only spouses participating, so children are put to work when they reach an age that is deemed appropriate by their parents. Most rural kids start to help when they are around 12 or 13, respectable ages for an education in work ethic, business practices, and the workings of a farm or ranch.
The next part of the rebound from this bill is the kids themselves. Many rural kids have started to tell the government that this bill is ludicrous at best. They claim that the education they received from their parents often was more practical and useful than what they learned in school. The emphasis placed on work ethic is what has allowed kids like myself to get where we are: in colleges and universities across the continent, learning every occupation under the sun. Our farm education, from working for Mom and Dad, is absolutely irreplaceable. But that seems to be exactly what the US Obama Administration seeks to do.