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this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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This is Culver’s. They’re a burger fast food joint located throughout the Midwest and have things called “Scoopy Night” where a percentage of the proceeds go toward a specific cause. Schools, dance groups, etc can partake and the kids who attend that school/dance group/etc help take orders and deliver food to tables. Not quite as dystopian as OP has made it seem.
Honestly... the idea that they do this work, and the money goes to a school instead of them, makes it even worse to me?
It's a fundraiser likely for an after school program. It typically pays out a lot better than a car wash or brat fry. Typically the students run orders out to cars.
And yeah, we probably should put more funding into schools for stuff like this instead of asking kids to fundraise.
Our schools do a "spirit night" fundraiser at a business once a month. The business donates a portion of the sales to the school during a specific time frame. Child labor is not involved.
"Child labor is ok if the money goes to a school!"
Yea it makes it worse tbh. We won't fund fun things at the schools so instead we make them work fast food to earn that funding.
It is indeed even more dystopian when you put it like that. It's got the same energy as people giving their coworker PTO so they can deliver a baby or whatever.
Are the kids required to work in order to get the money? Because that sounds like a job with good PR.
My thoughts exactly. If it's optional, cool, the kids get some experience and maybe takehome money. If it's required, fuck that shit.
That's just child labor exploitation with extra steps.
This is what it is, and it's sad that it's so normalized that people are defending it.
Everyone knows the kids aren't technically required, but they're "required" by social pressure.
I remember having to go door to door selling things when I was a kid. It may have been voluntary in a technical sense, but I was pretty well mandated to do so if I wanted to be part of that group with my friends. And there was even more pressure from my mom and dad because they didn't want to be the family whose kid didn't do the thing.
I think it's time we start taking a long hard look at some of these things like fundraisers and de facto coerced employment of youth (without pay) and ask ourselves if a healthy system would allow this.
The one near me that does fundraisers doesn't have any students working. Usually the teachers go to say hi to families that come.
Children do work at McDonald’s though
Just they would keep them in the back so they can’t be seen
yup. 10 year olds running deep fryers.
when we needed to do fundraisers THE PARENTS IN THE PTA DID IT FOR THE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS.
We had plenty of 'kids' working at fast food and grocery stores but not until 15 minimum. this kid looks like he's 9. that's too young to be fucking around near fryers and hot grills.
He's not. He's waiting tables and taking orders.
-_-
In this thread, a bunch of people that have never heard of doing a fundraiser.
Next up, they're going to go scream at the girl scouts on the corner that they're being exploited
The way this thread is going it sure would seem that way. A little bit of menial work to earn money for an activity is hardly the same as if this kid was on his 9-5 grind just itching for his next smoke break.
Whoa whoa whoa, how dare you provide context! I want to be rage baited into thinking America Bad!
Don't worry, America still Bad.
Well that’s a relief.
Don't worry, there's plenty of legitimate outrage to be had without manufacturing it...
Why not both?
Why pay any attention to manufactured outrage? If there's actual events to be outraged about, then we should talk about them instead of fictions. If there's only manufactured events, then it isn't an issue in the first place.
This is different from hypotheticals too. A realistic hypothetical holds as much water as an actual event. If there's a 1% chance of a catastrophic hypothetical, and it happens hundreds of times daily, that's a big fucking deal.
To put it another way, if there's something to be legitimately outraged about, why bother with creating fictitious scenarios?
If you think this context makes it OK, you're fucking delusional lmao.
No, that's still idiotic. It doesn't matter what the context is of why a child is working at a fast food restaurant. There's a child working at a fast food restaurant. This isn't selling chocolates to raise money for a class hamster.
Being intent on remaining outraged is idiotic. Spending a few hours doing a handful of minor tasks at a fast food restaurant for fun is worlds apart from being required to labor for day after day for a pay check.
That's why we need to have ubi for everyone, even these kids. Then they will just have money to spend on their dance clubs and stuff without having to work for it.
Selling chocolates is so much worse though. That always creeped me out because it’s either A) kids learning how to hawk wares on the street outside of stores, B) kids learning how to be door-to-door cold call solicitors or C) run a MLM pyramid scheme by convincing their parents to push their product at work.
Maybe even D) a combination of all of those for the ultimate street hustler training.
This is just kids “playing house” for a few hours. Most probably love that shit. I would have killed to see what the buttons on the register do and how the fries are made.
Honestly, I would err on the side of caution anyway. The worst that can happen is minor embarrassment that came from good intentions.
It’s indicative of a larger effort by republicans to force children back to work, this is part of that dystopia even if it’s on the “light dystopia” side of the spectrum.
Fuck off whiteknight, keep enabling corporate’s ability to normalize and capitalize off of child labor. This ain’t no goddamn bake sale or car wash.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/04/18/child-labor-returns/
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-immigration-hyundai/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html
Keep downvoting, bootlickers
Work experience at school is legitimately a thing though here in the UK.
I had a paper round at 13 and washed dishes in a pub at 15. It was my choice to work and earn money. Not sure what's so dystopian about that.
In germany as well. We had a week where we could try out a few jobs and occupations hands-on. It was great. Seventh grade, I believe.
And that was 33 years ago.
It's is in the US too after age 15.
More proof that we do live in a dystopia
I don't know how I even survived bussing tables 8 hours a week at age 14 🙄
Really, a part time job and saving while still in high school made it a hell of a lot easier to start out on my own after.
Indeed, florida's plan to make up for the migrants they shit on and terrorized out of the state is child labor. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/11/2216798/-Florida-has-a-solution-to-education-issues-It-s-called-child-labor
How does that boot taste?
"no, no, its not bad! The child worker is working for charity!"
Oh nice, so its worse
scoopie night The abuse has to stop. Look at those abused kids. The horror.
Would you want your child working at a fast food restaurant? Doesn't matter what kind of cutesy name gets attached to child labor.
For a few hours? Sure, why not. They’re not actually useful labor. The store is doing you a favor. Your average 8 year old peeled away from Minecraft and told to do a task is going to fuck up more than they help. I know, because I was that kid and I fucked up a lot. Sometimes in very expensive ways. My only worry would be that they would leave the job thinking every day will be fresh and new like that day, and that people are gracious and polite.
For a few weeks? Oh hell yes, now we’re talking. Then they’ll see the monotony and how much corporate sucks. Even more, how much customers suck. At that point, the value of learning a skill that keeps you out of the fast food/retail mines will be obvious.
Depends on the kid. Do they treat workers disrespectfully, or not understand that money shouldn't be recklessly spent? Absolutely have them work fast food for a night -- so long as an adult is there to make sure there's no safety issues and they're paid full minimum wage for it, I'm all for it.
I had a chemistry teacher in high school who maintained that everyone should have to work retail or fast food once, and as I've grown older I completely understand what they meant. Some people are naturally not dicks. They don't look down on workers at Walmart or McDonald's. For others, it's a lesson they have to learn. They need to work in that position to understand what it's like.
That doesn't mean we should draft all kindergarteners into the work force. But the occasional experience to show them what a minimum wage job is like? Absolutely. If we want kids to grow up voting for minimum wage increases and universal labor rights, they have to learn these things somehow.
Yes, of course I would. It's a great experience. We actually did that back in school, had a week when we all went out to check out different jobs. It was a great thrill and fun for all. Certainly not labor. We got to do grownup things. That was shortly before seventh grade, iirc.
And then, we've had school things where we would bake and cook and sell it right there on campus. Is that labor as well? Oh, and when I was in the boy scouts, we sometimes went door to door raising funds and selling trinkets. Child labor?
It's not like we had to do eight-hour days, week for week. A few hours, once in your life. That's not labor. That's a fun thing to do.
I remember doing something similar in HS 20+ years ago.