So this is a thing (Child labor for picking tobacco)

**Meresgi** · 2014-06-27 12:21

Just saw the Daily Show covering this:

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/14/312181...o-pick-tobacco

Kids under 18 can't buy cigarettes in the U.S., but they can legally work in tobacco fields when they're as young as 12.

One of those kids is Eddie Ramirez, 15, who works the fields in the summer.

"It just sticks to my hand," he says of the plant. "It's really sticky, you know, and really yellow." It's nearly impossible to wash off, he says.

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-epis...lissa-mccarthy

**BaneTheBrawler** · 2014-06-27 13:16

well you can't expect the crackers to change too quickly. it's only been 150 years.

**Waraji** · 2014-06-27 13:18

I'm going to continue to passively protest this by not smoking. :l

**RKenshin** · 2014-06-27 13:58

Originally Posted by Waraji

I'm going to continue to passively protest this by not smoking. :l

I'm personally taking it one step further, and also planning to kindly remind some close friends that smoking is bad.

**Anoat** · 2014-06-27 14:12

I worked in tobacco fields for a few summers as a teen. It wasn't brutal in my experience. Of course you are outside in the heat most of the day doing manual labor so it could be exhaustive work, but we were never in any serious danger. Bosses made sure we stayed hydrated and we never worked with any kind of dangerous equipment. Got paid good money, too, all under the table. It sure beat the hell out of flipping burgers.

**bechyni** · 2014-06-27 14:13

Nothing new really, at least not for where I live (NC). Kids under the age of 18 work on farms during the summer as opposed to getting a workers permit, filing for taxes, and all that shit.

**Lucavi** · 2014-06-27 14:50

If you're in the south, this is routine, a part of growing up to many. If you're from anywhere but the south, this is oppressive, exploitative, ect.

Ho hum.

**Pirian** · 2014-06-27 14:59

Originally Posted by Lucavi

If you're in the south, this is routine, a part of growing up to many. If you're from anywhere then this is oppressive, exploitative, ect, but the south simply accepts it as the way it has always been.

Ho hum.

ftfy

lived in NC essentially my entire life

**Roranora** · 2014-06-27 15:59

Hey bitches, Kansas isn't the south. Get that border war lined out correctly.

Of course, the fields weren't tobacco, but I worked on farms in the summer months as a teenager as well. More like 15-16, not age 12 though. At 12, I could handle a lawnmower maybe, not a $200k tractor + plow/cultivator/etc.

**Komm Suesser Tod** · 2014-06-27 16:03

I'm from Iowa, and there have always been kids working in the summer in the corn fields, freaking destroying their hands and working in the bullshit oppressive heat and humidity. Thankfully, I missed this particular rite of passage.

**Senji** · 2014-06-27 17:34

Originally Posted by Roranora

Hey bitches, Kansas isn't the south. Get that border war lined out correctly.

Of course, the fields weren't tobacco, but I worked on farms in the summer months as a teenager as well. More like 15-16, not age 12 though. At 12, I could handle a lawnmower maybe, not a $200k tractor + plow/cultivator/etc.

Below the 39 parallel mason Dixon = the hick south until Colorado.

**Acevalefor** · 2014-06-27 18:18

I grew up in Oregon and even I worked in fields when I was growing up. At 12, I drove the hay truck because I was too little to lift the hay bails. By 14, I was running the elevators and conveyors as well as driving deuce + 1/2 trucks. Same backbreaking work as the tobacco and corn fields. It paid great moneytoo. $10/hr when MW was $6.25/hr. Every penny in cash untaxed. It felt good to make over $6000 in 45 days of hard work then get the rest of the summer to find creative ways to spend the large sum of money for a 14-year-old kid...I bought all kinds of shit that I didn't need. Too bad nobody taught me to save that money.

**BaneTheBrawler** · 2014-06-27 18:55

Originally Posted by Acevalefor

At 12, I drove the hay truck because I was too little to lift the hay bails.

bitch get on my level; i was slingin bales for at least two years before we moved when i was 11. as a chore, though, not for money.

**Marootsoobutsu** · 2014-06-27 20:06

I grew up in western Washington, but spent the summers in eastern WA with my dad. He worked on a farm, and once I could get on, I did, too. Was good times-- hard work, but it was enjoyable. Was my idea, not something pushed or cultural or whatever... I got flack for it, and my folks never even implied it's something I should do, or consider; they tried to talk me out of it the first year.

Honestly don't see the problem with it, as long as it's not happening instead of school. There's a lot of worse ways to spend a summer, with far fewer rewards.

**Anoat** · 2014-06-27 20:38

This is actually the reason why in America, most school years run from August/September - May instead of doing a calendar year. Up until very recently (the last 60 years or so), most children were needed and expected to be helping the family farm during the summer months and not attend school.

**Meresgi** · 2014-06-27 21:17

I think the point of it is not "I did this too, so what's the big deal"...it's the point of "Some of these kids are basically indentured, working 12+hrs in 100degree heat and not getting water or rest".

Sure not all of them are, but many of them are doing it (I would assume a vast majority of the ones treated poorly are children of illegals).

**Senji** · 2014-06-27 23:26

I think the point is half of BG busted ass when they were little and decided they needed to dick off with mmos in their twenties to make up for it.

**Marootsoobutsu** · 2014-06-28 00:35

Originally Posted by Senji

I think the point is half of BG busted ass when they were little and decided they needed to dick off with mmos in their twenties to make up for it.

It's just that FFXI felt so much like work that it was familiar. XI is the video game equivalent of bucking bails for 12 hours a day in the middle of summer.

**Niiro** · 2014-06-28 18:29

Originally Posted by Anoat

This is actually the reason why in America, most school years run from August/September - May instead of doing a calendar year. Up until very recently (the last 60 years or so), most children were needed and expected to be helping the family farm during the summer months and not attend school.

While this is true, a good reason why it's stayed that way is the absurd amount it would cost to install and run AC in every public school that would reasonably need them in the Summer that don't currently have them (I'm sure schools in the south and southwest have AC, but speaking for NY, nope, just wall AC units in the faculty/office areas for really early and really late in the school year).

Considering how little we're willing to spend on education to begin with, no one's gonna be pushing for this to happen anytime soon (even though plenty of studies have shown that extended summer vacations knee-cap the educational process massively compared to getting 1 month off in the winter and 1 in the summer).

**Marootsoobutsu** · 2014-06-28 20:09

Originally Posted by Niiro

Considering how little we're willing to spend on education to begin with

We spend more on education than we do on anything except health care. The issue honestly isn't how much we spend on education, it's how freaking poorly we spend it. We spend more in raw dollars-per-student than any other nation on earth on education, and we spend a higher percentage of our GDP than a pretty vast majority of developed nations. That's not including fundraisers, donations, and other contributions to school outside tax-funded calculations, areas where the US is typically the most generous.

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