A Citations Needed News Brief is a news brief in between our regularly scheduled full length episodes. This week, we look at the return of child labor and how it's being used to justify gutting social welfare programs. The idea that there's a labor shortage is kind of a cheap shorthand that doesn't really explain what's going on or the fact that wages are refusing to keep up with the needs of workers.
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.