Eric Levitz wrote in New York magazine about why child labor laws are perhaps being rolled back. Adam Schiff: This is peak liberal pathologizing. Nobody really wanted us to have a child labor regime again as exposed by the New York Times and the tens of thousands. Never mind that we literally almost never enforce laws against child exploitation and child labor, he says. The second prong is a different story. US officials have stumbled into what is, in essence, a child labor trafficking policy, cruelty and a rationality of which derive from negligence rather than intention.
In this public News Brief, we detail how uncritical acceptance by centrist––and even liberal––media that the US is seeing an unprecedented "labor shortage" is helping justify repealing child labor protections in roughly a dozen states.