Two pieces of bad news for economic freedom came out of Texas this week. Elizabeth Nolan Brown at Reason writes about the more recent one:
In a performative bid against “human trafficking,” Texas has raised the legal age for working at a strip club from 18 to 21 years old, putting many employees out of work and putting clubs that hire them—even inadvertently—in risk of serious legal penalties, including up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The state also updated part of its penal code to define “child” as anyone under age 21.
This is from Elizabeth Nolan Brown, “Barely Legal Strippers Now Fully Illegal in Texas,” Reason, June 3, 2021.
Brown also notes:
Texas is also following a regrettable trend toward infantilizing young adults in America, carving out ages 18 to 20 as a liminal period between being a child and full adulthood. Not only is this cohort unable to consume alcohol legally, but the legal age for purchasing cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and tobacco products is now 21. Alaska considers anyone who “causes or induces” an 18- to 20-year-old to be paid for sex to be a criminal sex trafficker, even if no force, fraud, or coercion is used. The FBI lumps 18- to 20-year-olds in with children for purposes of missing kids statistics. And so on.
On Tuesday, Governor Abbott announced a new restriction on day care facilities. Robert T. Garrett and Dianne Solis of the Dallas Morning News write:
Escalating his showdown with President Joe Biden, Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday ordered state child-care regulators to yank licenses from facilities that house minors who crossed the state’s southern border without papers and were detained.
Currently, 52 state-licensed general residential operations and child placing agencies in Texas have contracts with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to care for undocumented immigrant children. ORR contracts with about 200 facilities in 22 states.
I had had some hope for Texas because of the governor’s and many legislators’ recognition that it was well past time to end the lockdowns. I have less hope now.
READER COMMENTS
Rick
Jun 3 2021 at 8:20pm
Nothing worse than Texas Republicans, except for the Democrats.
Alan Goldhammer
Jun 4 2021 at 7:33am
I find these legislative actions totally unsurprising. Texas is enjoying the final throes of minority rule based on demographics and they want to enshrine as many restrictive laws as they can pass.
Tyler Wells
Jun 4 2021 at 9:20am
I appreciate calling both parties to task on their illiberalism. I had hoped that the Republicans would adopt a more nuanced and compassionate attitude toward immigration post-Trump, such as they had back in the Reagan administration. I am dismayed that that has not been the case.
Thomas Lee Hutcheson
Jun 4 2021 at 10:54am
Perhaps one day the Libertarian illusion that Republicans are on net more liberty respecting than Democrats will die out.
Philo
Jun 4 2021 at 7:14pm
It is very difficult to measure amounts of liberty, so as to determine which party is worse. Neither seems (speaking impressionistically) to be getting better.
David Henderson
Jun 4 2021 at 7:52pm
Well put, Philo. I would say that both parties have gotten worse.
Jon Murphy
Jun 4 2021 at 11:46am
What’s bizarre about the logic behind the legislation is places like strip clubs or pornography studios are often the first line of defense against sex trafficking. Rather than promoting it, they actively fight it!
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who runs a small but successful pornography studio in California (we weren’t discussing this legislation, but the conversation is related). What she was telling me (and what’s the norm in the industry) is that they carefully screen and interview their actors and actresses to make sure everyone is there voluntarily. Apparently, there’s a charity that all the studios contribute to and run to help abused people: legal help, psychiatric help, relocation, etc.
In my admittedly anecdotal experience, the sex industry are far from promoters of exploitation. They are some of exploitation’s most vigilant opponents.
Jon Murphy
Jun 4 2021 at 12:01pm
By the way: none of this is to say exploitation doesn’t happen.
But rather than harmful pearl-clutching about the issue, government officials should talk to the people they claim they want to help.
Texas’s behavior is categorically no different than the various world governments’ behavior around COVID: lots of pretty words but, in the end, slapdash policy enacted without any input from the very people it supposedly was going to help.
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