• leires@lemmy.worldEnglish
    646·
    9 months ago

    Some facts to consider:

    • This happened in New South Wales, in a very rural area. People are not going to commute out to this remote location for minimum wage.
    • Kids volunteer on the weekends and parents sign off on it.
    • Some of the kids like it because they don’t have anything else to do, they learn a job skill, and they make a little money.

    That said, I don’t agree with it. Hire adults and do what everyone else does by having a “bring your child to work day/week” if you want to teach kids. Or make a field trip. Let’s not go backwards in society to benefit companies.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      393·
      9 months ago

      Kids volunteer on the weekends and parents sign off on it.

      I grew up in a poor rural area, and we had a bunch of child labor due to agriculture exceptions.

      Most of it wasn’t kids earning a “life skill” or pocket money. It was poor kids who had to work. And usually their parents worked there too.

      And they only need to be 12 for it to be legal.

      The families need the kids to work, but the kids working inflates the labor pool and keeps wages low.

      If a kids like 16 and wants to pick up a part time job, cool.

      But little kids shouldn’t be holding down jobs.

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
        9·
        9 months ago

        Having partially grown up with this shit, I would say these asshole can absolutely get fucked and do the work themselves. They good enough to count beans, they good enough to clear the land, plant em, take care of them, harvest them, and sell 'em all before they get to do beancounting duties. You count the beans you bring to market by the sweat of your own brows, no exceptions

        Might help them realize why Protestant work ethic shit is garbage exploiter nonsense

      • PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world
        8·
        9 months ago

        I made this exact argument yesterday on the shit hole formerly known as Reddit, and of course got nothing but backlash from angry neck beards who think everyone should be allowed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps at the age of 11.

      • Kiosade@lemmy.ca
        151·
        9 months ago

        “Well if we pay much more than that, it will dip into OUR profit! What are we supposed to do, just make less money?!”

    • Peddlephile@lemm.ee
      161·
      9 months ago

      They might commute if it was easy and cheaper than what they’re paid. You want workers, make it worth their while.

  • youngalfred@lemm.ee
    55·
    9 months ago

    Wow did not realise that three of our states don’t have a minimum working age - NSW, Tasmania and South Australia.

      • Monument@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        9·
        9 months ago

        Same. On second glance, though, the site in the tweet is a .net.au.

        Not a guarantee, but certainly ups the odds.

      • Baku@aussie.zoneEnglish
        2·
        9 months ago

        Nope, this is indeed from Australia. I assumed it would’ve been the US too tbh. But you can tell because our ABC (capitalised) has a different logo to your abc (lower case), and the domain ends in .au (the internet country code for Australia)

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
        2·
        9 months ago

        If it weren’t for the comment, I would haven’t just not noticed. I assumed the same. That’s fucked.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
        2·
        9 months ago

        Not as fucked up as it sounds. Federally, the minimum working age is 16 and parents are legally required to keep their kids in school until they’re 16. Most Aussies believe you need to be 14 and 9 months to get a job (beyond the family business), as that was an older minimum schooling requirement (decades ago).

        Combined with the high quality of living, low poverty rate, high immigration (suppressing wages), and high minimum wage, this functionally meant that there was never any reason for the states to mandate a minimum working age — businesses didn’t seek to employ them.

        Obviously now that capitalism has corrupted most governments and abandoned the social contract, we need to rethink all norms of modern society.

        • Baku@aussie.zoneEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          Eh, I agree with you on most of that except the high minimum wage bit.

          The minimum wage for anybody 15 or under is 40% of the wage for anybody over 21. I believe that not all industries do have that provision in their award, but all entry level jobs do. I guess it’s a bit of a miracle that it doesn’t keep going down further than 15, because if it did, maccas would probably be run by 11 year olds making 10% of the 21+ wage.

          But even besides that, our minimum wage isn’t really high compared to the cost of living, which is the metric that really matters. Our minimum wage compared to elsewheres cost of living is not a good comparison

    • Gerbler@lemmy.ml
      4·
      9 months ago

      As someone who grew up in NSW it’s 14 and 9 months. Exceptions might exist for family businesses etc. but your 8-year-old can’t apply for a job at Woolies.

  • lugal@lemmy.ml
    431·
    9 months ago

    Child poverty is a big issue but people seem to forget that work is the best thing again poverty /s

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
      25·
      9 months ago

      Really? I’m over here in Texas and we seem to have found a completely different solution to childhood poverty. And childhood…

      • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
        3·
        9 months ago

        Some people would rather be poor in a house than poor on the streets. This ain’t getting fixed in our lifetime make the best of your life you’re able to

      • lugal@lemmy.ml
        2·
        9 months ago

        In that case, it’s your fault. Source: it’s always your fault, never blame the system. Only lazy people blame the system.

    • lugal@lemmy.ml
      22·
      9 months ago

      You can take the children out of the jam factory but you can’t take the jam factory out of the children

      • Souroak@lemmy.sdf.org
        24·
        9 months ago

        Unless they fall into the industrial equipment, then you absolutely cannot take the children out of the jam factory.

        • Chuckleberry_Finn@lemmy.world
          18·
          9 months ago

          “Local child jammed into jam factory jam jams jam jammer.”

          Edit: J’s are starting to look weird to me after staring at this too long.

  • corymbia@reddthat.com
    39·
    9 months ago

    Jam factory solves lack of red-coloured blobby ingredients being forced through high-speed machinery by hiring children.

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
    112·
    9 months ago

    I imagine this was a field trip or something like that and it has been evolving to be more rage inducing since that picture was taken.

    • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
      16·
      9 months ago

      Reminds me of the story about a school field trip to a cotton farm and they got the kids to go out in the fields to pick cotton and at the end of the day they didn’t get to keep the cotton they picked, the farm kept it.

    • kenopsik@lemm.ee
      4·
      9 months ago

      I’m also thinking this is the case, especially since the kid’s hat still has a tag on it. I imagine that would be a gift shop purchase.

      • Otakulad@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        I don’t think that is the price tag. It looks to be the tag on the hat with what materials it is made of and washing instructions.

  • summerof69@lemm.ee
    113·
    9 months ago

    If a school kid wants to work and earn money, let it be. There is nothing wrong with that.

  • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
    234·
    9 months ago

    This sucks and should be illegal. This should fucking onion article not for real. But goddammit our government just shurgs tells us how great the economy is. Biden and Democrats should be ashamed that under their watch they sold out to billionaire class allowing this to happen.

    Hell they don’t even call it out.