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Government Regulations Protect and Enrich Government, Not Workers by Don Hull In July 2001, The California Department of Industrial Relations (Labor Dept.), investigated the complaint of a subcontractor employee of the Trinity Knitworks located in Orange County, California. The employee, an "illegal" immigrant, was working at home, on a piece-work basis, assembling toy tiaras for sale in the souvenir shops of Disneyland. The Calif. Labor Dept. goons got wind of this and started to work immediately, beating up on Disney for "exploiting" subcontractors, even though the real "exploiter" was Trinity Knitworks. The government quickly shifted their bazookas towards Trinity Knitworks and forced them to pay the subcontractors $7,000 in "back wages" for violating minimum wage laws, but meanwhile confiscated thousands of Disney garments and fined Trinity $650,000 for labor-law violations. In other words, the state agency used its police powers to steal thousands of pieces of merchandise, PLUS grab $650,000 for itself, while only collecting $7,000 for the allegedly exploited workers. If government was "caring and compassionate," wouldn't it have spread that $650,000 among the workers instead of take the money for itself??? Yet, the government stole for itself over NINETY TIMES as much money as it required for back wages. So, who's the REAL criminal? The employer who allegedly didn't pay his workers $7,000 they were "due"? Or the government, which took by force, thousands of products of the workers' labors PLUS over a HALF MILLION DOLLARS of the employer's revenue? Labor departments, both federal and state, are not only unconstitutional, but have become PLUNDEROCRACIES who use technical administrative violations as an excuse to violate the property rights of employers as well as the rights of both employers and employees to negotiate their own contracts. Government Labor Depts. actually DESTROY more economic activity than they facilitate, and should be destroyed themselves. Even when they do NOTHING they cost us taxpayers money. And when they do SOMETHING they make life worse for everybody (except themselves, of course). Government Labor agencies are antithetical to freedom.
discuss this column in the forum Don Hull is an advertising/marketing consultant in Costa Mesa, CA and has run for Congress twice on the Libertarian ticket.
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