A 14 year old working in what I assume is a restaurant seems weird to me, but if their parents agree, I can’t see much harm in letting a youngster put a beer or a glass of scotch in front of the customer. Heck, at that age, I was stealing beer from my dad’s supply. I think I turned out OK.
In theory, maybe. But I think the bigger issue is that at 14, a kid doesn’t have a real great ability to deal with drunk people, or is responsible enough to check IDs or any of the other things required to serve alcohol. Can you imagine a 14 year old in a TIPs training class?
Edit: and imagine how shitty a 14 year old girl would get treated serving booze to drunk assholes
You are putting children at risk of sexual harrassment from drunk adults. That is enough to say no for me lol.
America, what is you doing? Get your legal drining age to a reasonable age first FFS.
A 14 year old can serve alcohol for seven years before they’re legally allowed to drink any? Thats fucked.
The drinking age is fine. If anything, it should be raised to 25 so that older college kids can’t buy booze for younger ones. Alcohol is a poison; let your brain finish developing first before you start abusing it. And before you call me a prude, I drink several times a week. (And smoke weed, of course.)
Like the other person said, you should be more concerned over the child labor issue. Bars already have issues with drunk assholes hitting on and groping servers; now imagine the server that is getting groped is your daughter who just barely entered high school.
State governments should instead provide incentives to business owners to pay their workers a livable wage, like tax credits and a higher minimum wage.
Furthermore, if a business cannot afford to pay it’s lowest level employees a $40K salary ($19/hr; the bare minimum needed for the average American to afford a home and all the basic necessities), then their business model is unsustainable and they should shut down.
Land of the free with the minimum 25 year old drinking age.
Literally the only thing an American is free to do is buy an AR15.
You’re forgetting voting, driving, getting married (unless you live in the red states where you can get forcibly married as a minor), and best of all, DEBT! ;)
You don’t learn to be responsible around alcohol by not having any access to it and then being able to buy hard liqour right away. The stories i heard both about college drinking and highschool drinking from people who spent a year in the US were both hilarious and frightening. In Germany teenagers can buy beer and wine with 16. Hard booze and sweet drinks, where you don’t taste the alcohol are 18+. Most people are getting in touch with alcohol when they are 14-16 with their parents present. Having a glass of sparkling wine for new years, having a beer with their parents at birthdays etc.
This way people learn what they can and cannot take, how easy it is to get drunk on booze and how to look out for signs of having drunk too much. Without the criminal punishment, that the US loves to shove down peoples throat, they also feel safe to get help if someone is suspected of having alcohol poisoning.
Would you also raise the age to join the military to 25? After all, someone whose brain isn’t developed fully shouldn’t be able to make the decision to go kill people at risk to their own life.
Fuck yeah I would. Too many young people putting their lives at risk without realizing the consequences.
that’s why you have different drinking age and buying alcohol in a store age. for example where i live you can drink when you’re 18 (which is considered adult for all other purposes) and buy alcohol from a store when you’re 20.
what’s the usual age when people start drinking in the US? i’m assuming it’s way younger than the actual legal drinking age
That’s your issue? Not that 14 year olds shouldn’t be working in bars, where hours interfere with school and growing brains properly, and pervs get pervier as they get drunker? Not that child labour is bad?
Can I not be upset at both? Not sure how what I said seemed like an approval of 14yo working in bars, but go off.
I don’t think you worded it well then. You said “get a reasonable drinking age first”. The first there implies that it’s ok to have children working in bars as long as it comes after lowering the drinking age.
Conservatives have found yet another way to groom teenagers. “Oh, it’s fine. She’s used to it. She works here. Hey, you like what you see? Let me sneak you a shot…”
For conservatives, every accusation is a confession.
You should have been hanging out with your friends, doing sports, doing art, doing things that only come to people under age. The thing you will pine for when you’re old is your salad days. Those days were swindled from you so someone could find cheaper labor.
Lmaoooooo what is wrong with you. Fuck kids and them wanting to earn cash, amirite comrades!
THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!
In Canada we have a minimum wage and a student minimum wage. Guess which is less…
I earned a lot of money in high school. Now I live in Europe and the culture is very different. That sort of thing isn’t done here.
I actually don’t know how I feel about it one way or the other. It’s different, but I did like actually having a decent amount of cashflow for a teenager.
It’s important to remember that there’s kids working to earn some extra cash for themselves (what I did as a teen and it sounds like you did, too) and there’s kids from families that aren’t well off where they have to work to support their struggling families. It is exploitation of the latter that we should be worried and upset about. Most people are fine with kids working a couple hours a week, but they shouldn’t be forced (by the system) to work daily so they have a chance of getting enough food on the table.
Oh, and btw, the working a couple hours a week thing is perfectly normal for kids in many European countries, too. I worked during holidays starting when I was 14 in Germany but IIRC only once you’re 16 you can actually do many hours
I started working construction when I was 15. I’m in my 30s and my body is broken, but like, I gotta eat right? Obviously this 14 yr old shouldn’t be working at a bar, and this is a symptom of a larger problem, but that’s SoCiAlIsM.
Except socialism is not directing your politics, capitalism is. When you have a lot of money lobbying politicians, corruption is inevitable. It even tells you in the article.
The bills are backed by restaurant lobbying groups as part of a broader effort to loosen child labor laws “to cut labor costs and deregulate employment”, the report writes – at a time when child labor violations are on the rise across the country.
When I see news like this I can only think that we are starting to see the end of our society as we know it. This is not progress in any way for the people, just for the powerful.
To me when progress is not directed toward the people that means we fail as a civilization. Why are humans living in complex civilizations if not to put the effort of thriving in common, getting past survival and aiming to live in comfort?
