Good Morning Middle America; your King of Simple News is on that air.

Alert reader Karen Buley recently commented, “Child labor laws came in due to unions. Is it better for our kids to be indoors watching TV ?” Hold on there just a darn minute Karen. Who could be against child labor laws? Actually… me for one.

Our opinions of child labor have been formed far more from the use of propaganda than from the use of independent thought and research. To make my point, let’s look at a different example of social conditioning.

How many hours should an adult work in a day? At what age should one retire? How much vacation should one receive in a calendar year? If these questions were asked of the majority of our population, the answers would be; eight hours, 65 years old, and three weeks’ vacation per year. But none of those answers are patently true. Custom and indoctrination are a dangerous combination.

So what are the true answers to the above questions? We should work as many hours per day as it takes to maintain our individual acceptable level of happiness; your choice. We should retire at whatever age we plan for and at such point that we can maintain ourselves without imposing on others; live simple, retire early. And, we should take all of the time off possible, while once again, not imposing a hardship on others.

There are few actual laws that control our lives; most are self imposed from a lack of independent thought and individual planning. We tend to follow the herd regardless of where the herd is going.

On the subject of child labor, if it were actually a crime to force kids to work, my folks would have done life without the possibility of parole. As would the parents of nearly every kid that I grew up with.
The children of farm families in the 50’s and 60’s worked long hard hours; of that I can testify under oath. The work provided by the children of our pioneer heritage was integral to the building of America.

Am I bitter today from having to have actually worked as a child? Hardly, I count my greatest personal blessing as that of growing up working on a farm. There may be some things that I can’t do, but right off the bat I really can’t think of any. My childhood work created independence, strength of character, responsibility, a sense of accomplishment, and the stark reality that there is no free lunch.

So what changed? The widely held current belief that “I don’t want my kids to work as hard as I had to,” didn’t occur overnight. Nah, the whole mess materialized over time. Tell a lie, tell a big lie, tell it often, and it will become truth to the masses.

Today our children can no longer find work due to laws that were formed to remove children from the workforce “for their own good.” No more lawns to mow, or crops to tend, or hay to bale, or summer jobs at the factory. These past summer standards of employment have deemed to be too hard, too dangerous, and too dirty for modern children.

The costs associated with wage and hour laws, unemployment insurance, social security withholding, OSHA, liability insurance, Workers Compensation and child labor laws…all prohibit the hiring of kids. And that’s just the way it was planned.

Instead, to earn money the kids go door to door saying such things as, “Our school soccer team is going to Australia and we are collecting donations to pay for the trip.”

At the same time that the kids learned that being excused from the horrendous labor of taking out the trash and lawn mowing, the adults were being indoctrinated into saying, “I don’t want my kids to have to work as hard as I did.” My question is, “Why not?”

Are you a worthless, irresponsible, mentally and physically crippled individual? Or did you grow up to be a productive, responsible, well rounded person?

“Preconceived notions are the locks on the door to wisdom.” ― Merry Browne