that is why gorcery stores are rushing to automate the check out. So they can reduce payroll ,The minimum wage just gives them incentive to hasten the process .I'm guessing you were a privileged kid who did not need to work as a teen to earn money to go to school . Lucky you. I am thankful that some head of household wasn't competing for that job. I would've been priced out of the market .

We abolished exploitation of children a long time ago, yes, we have youth employment in the fast food industry but that only applies to a limited number. Checkouts are automated to move people through the checkout process quicker, I rarely use a traditional checkout, preferring to bag my own groceries

So a teenager having a job to earn some spending money and learn something about responsibility is now, in Clete's view, the exploitation of children. In the words of Charlie Brown, "Good grief."

Indeed it is, we have minimum age for the employment of minors and laws that keep kids in school, as I said there are limited opportunities for employment of minors. No doubt the mum and dad business mainly run by migrants employ their kids but who knows if they are paid. Many businesses like 7-11 have been prosecuted for underpaying. As a young person I was employed in jobs such as you refer too and I now understand I was exploited

I understand I was getting experience that translated to more opportunities when I was an adult . My employers did not have to waste valuable training time teaching me how to work .

Voter fraud update : The Texas Sec State discovered

Only in right wing loonyville is the needs of parents with kids, below the need for a kid to have spending money. It's 2019 my gosh and grocery store and fast food training was a thing back in the last century. It's not a right kids have after school jobs, isn't that part of a parents job? If they need to help out financially at home that's a different dynamic and they may as well get out there and compete in the real world, and today's real world the so called JOB CREATORS, not the government makes those rules. Government should though set good standards and give guidance to protect it's citizens against any bad behavior or practice that could be exploitive, and we KNOW for fact that always happens.

That's why lobbyist get the big bucks and politicians get a cut. Between huge budget busting tax cuts and rich guys demanding MO MONEY what's lost is the dynamic of practical need of citizens and the government charged with the promoting and protecting it's citizens. Yeah I know, all the taxes on the rich will never pay for the debts we have incurred, but smart taxation will certainly fund things we need as a country. Yeah only the loony right can come up with a plan to compete with the rest of the world by cutting taxes for rich guys and keep wages low while ordinary conservatives beat their chest about how hard they worked to get where they are, and blast anybody else as lazy victims.

Oh poor YOU! Get them darned ultra conservatives and right wingers out of my government PLEASE, and take that lying cheating dufus and his sycophants with you. That's what will surely let America be GREAT.

Only in right wing loonyville is the needs of parents with kids, below the need for a kid to have spending money. It's 2019 my gosh and grocery store and fast food training was a thing back in the last century. It's not a right kids have after school jobs, isn't that part of a parents job? If they need to help out financially at home that's a different dynamic and they may as well get out there and compete in the real world, and today's real world the so called JOB CREATORS, not the government makes those rules. Government should though set good standards and give guidance to protect it's citizens against any bad behavior or practice that could be exploitive, and we KNOW for fact that always happens.

That's why lobbyist get the big bucks and politicians get a cut. Between huge budget busting tax cuts and rich guys demanding MO MONEY what's lost is the dynamic of practical need of citizens and the government charged with the promoting and protecting it's citizens. Yeah I know, all the taxes on the rich will never pay for the debts we have incurred, but smart taxation will certainly fund things we need as a country. Yeah only the loony right can come up with a plan to compete with the rest of the world by cutting taxes for rich guys and keep wages low while ordinary conservatives beat their chest about how hard they worked to get where they are, and blast anybody else as lazy victims.

Oh poor YOU! Get them darned ultra conservatives and right wingers out of my government PLEASE, and take that lying cheating dufus and his sycophants with you. That's what will surely let America be GREAT.

My first two part-time jobs as a teenager were jobs working at less than minimum wage. After that, while in college, I worked summers and part-time. At no time was I exploited. In fact, I view as a blessing. I learned a lot of practical lessons. How to get somewhere on time, work hard, handle people, handle money, be honest, and spend wisely were all lessons I could not have learned in a classroom. It grieves me that young people are being denied those life lessons because the liberal do-gooders can't just mind their own business.

We were taught those lessons in grade school by parents and teachers. You have all my sympathy for not having been educated in those areas earlier.

No, you weren't, not in the same way you learn those lessons in the real world. You can't be taught, for instance, how to handle your own money wisely until you actually have some money. It is one thing to get to class on time when you are already at school, and another thing altogether to have to get up, put on clothes, and drive yourself 10 miles to work in a car you bought yourself with money you earned so as to get to work on time.

Not even close to being the same thing. You have all my sympathy for apparently not having had to the opportunity to learn real world lessons.

My husband and I learned all those things at home AND at school, as did our kids. Working at paying jobs put all those lessons into the real world of work.

My dad paid me a penny per pine cone (yes, we had several pine trees in our yard) that I picked up so he could cut the grass. I received birthday and Christmas money from far-away relatives; that money was put in my piggy bank and saved to buy fabrics which then were made into skirts and dresses for me (when I was older, I did the sewing). I was responsible to set my alarm clock and get up and dressed for school and Sunday morning church. When I was 15, I started working after school and Saturdays at the IGA a half-mile walk from my house, was responsible for getting there on time, serving as stockclerk and cashier (handling money, keeping customers happy, stocking shelves), dealing with wilted produce and a grumpy owner. My two sons were brought up the same way with the same expectations but had jobs in convenience stores and public libraries. Yes, lots of practical lessons -- first at home and then in the real world!

I would agree with that. Both are needed. A high minimum wage tends to keep kids out of part-time and summer jobs. That's a shame.

Mom and dad can buy groceries without assistance.

Fake news from Trump.

Tom, you have to stop re-tweeting Trump's tweets. Surely you know by now the moron is a liar and doesn't understand numbers.

He has totally misconstrued Texas Sec'y of State report on voter figures. For one, the 58,000 number is over a period of 22 years! And even then the report doesn't say they are non-US citizens.

Please read it for yourself and don't depend on Trump for your facts. He doesn't read well and has poor reading comprehension.

When you post false figures like you've done here, you make us wonder about other "facts" you post.

Sounds pretty accurate to me. What facts are you using? This comes from that great bastion of conservative thought, the NY Times.

"The Texas secretary of state’s office on Friday called into question the citizenship status of 95,000 registered voters who were found to have identified themselves at some point to a state law enforcement agency as noncitizen, legal residents of the United States.
The office said its findings were a result of an 11-month investigation with the Texas Department of Public Safety that also found that about 58,000 people on the list had voted since 1996. The results of the investigation were referred on Friday to Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said he planned to open a potentially sprawling investigation."

The 58,000 means they have voted since 1996, so that sounds like it was done repeatedly over a period of 22 years. Is it a big deal? That depends on whether this is the iceberg or the tip of the iceberg.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/u...ing-texas.html

Let me explain the repub voter playbook. First they allow no immigration policy or language that allows illegals to become legal. Then they expand the illegal label, and that justifies greater scrutiny, and justifies purging the voter roll, with or without evidence that it's an accurate process. Then they fudge the numbers for example 3 million illegals voted, and leave out the 10 year period of the finding, to scare the heck out of folks and justify more polling/election security, and purge undesirable voters. And that's only ONE tool in the bag of tricks.

What makes it work, is an unaware public who doesn't verify the findings or reports, and willing to believe those that say the findings are flawed. The motive? To keep power despite changing demographic, and changing veiws and attitudes. Control the congress and control the money, and the power and influence that goes with it.

The solution is an informed electorate, and greater voter participation, as well as an accurate and robust process of oversight. Till then we only have the courts to settle these disputes.

Where did you get those figures from?

I presented no figures but have lived through the tactics as have many. Repubs holler widespread voter fraud and even have a list of names as proof, but upon investigation, they end up with far fewer, and single digit convictions in a good year. That's how it's been done in Pennsylvania, where local repubs admitted to their goal to suppress votes of dems, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and the Carolinas, and at home in Texas. It's an old story, and they NEVER report the outcomes after an investigation, leaving the lie to linger about fraudulent voters as the justification for even stricter voter suppression laws. Create the fear, blow it up, and come to the rescue with suppressive solutions by repub state legislatures.

It's no wonder that the lying cheating dufus is embraced by lying cheating repubs. Despicable, and as I said old tricks done in public to sway elections. I will let you get your own links just Google voter fraud in... and add any state you want.

Here's but a sample in Texas. Silly season has begun AGAIN for 2020.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b00906b26c62ac

They tell it very well. This from the Brennan Center is also submitted for your perusal,

https://www.brennancenter.org/analys...ter-fraud-myth

I will include this article of suppression as another example of repub dirty election tricks.

https://www.care2.com/causes/what-do...-examples.html

Uhm...other than the figures of 3 million illegals voting over a period of ten years? So where did you get those figures??

And no, I'm not going to waste my time digging through three articles that, if history is any indicator, will provide no justification for the figures you stated. Did you just make them up, or is there any source you can point to?

I actually used YOUR post and link to cross reference your article with local news TV reports.