[meinmissoula]

The comment I'm responding to goes against several HN guidelines, but I'm hoping I can use the opportunity to turn it away from low-effort trolling into an opportunity for education and clarity.

The 2-party system in the US causes hundreds of distinct groups and ideologies to be lumped into either a D or R, regardless of any ideological cohesion to any particular label- left, right, liberal, conservative, authoritarian, libertarian, etc.

The state-level government in Texas is controlled by the Republican party, but specifically by a neoconservative, nationalist, social conservative-Christian cohort. The fiscal conservatives and libertarian small-government conservatives are essentially powerless, minority members of either the Democrat or Republican party, and individuals whose views match those labels will likely vote split-ticket in most elections rather than a straight-party voting pattern.

In essence, while the comment I'm responding to is alluding to a hypocrisy of beliefs, a better interpretation is that the "small government" conservatives don't really hold any power in the Texas state Republican establishment. To the extent that any of them vote R, they're mostly doing so in a "choose which of 2 bad choices seems least bad" context.

[mrguyorama]

This is nonsense. The people saying that government should be small and local, ie Abott himself, are the exact same people saying that they need to prevent Austin from governing itself.

This isn't even hypocrisy, it's just lying.

[Auracle]

Eh. Let’s say you run a small construction company. Each week you might be in a different town, chasing whatever work is available to you. I can absolutely see it being onerous/possibly impossible to follow different ordinances in each city.

Any reasonable company would already have water breaks more often than that, and presumably OSHA has rules for that too.

I’m a wedding photographer. Sometimes we hire on second photographers for a day. Should I get in trouble if I didn’t realize in was within specific city limits that mandated I give a defined water break to that second photographer after so many hours? Most weddings you just get water whenever you can, here and there.

[mrguyorama]

You aren't responsible for an independent contractor's breaks. You have no obligation to tell a wedding photographer to take a lunch if they have worked 8 hours straight. That's entirely on them as their own boss.

>Each week you might be in a different town, chasing whatever work is available to you. I can absolutely see it being onerous/possibly impossible to follow different ordinances in each city.

Even our small town of 7000 people managed to employ two entire construction empires. If the amount of money in that system is not enough for you to give enough of a crap to provide required breaks and other health important things for your workers, I cry no tears when you are fined.

It's always the same people crying about "onerous" regulation because they refuse to even do a simple google search.

>Any reasonable company would already have water breaks more often than that, and presumably OSHA has rules for that too.

Then you have nothing to worry about. If you have rules that are above and beyond any existing standard, you are not violating a standard. This really isn't complicated and people are bending themselves in half to try and justify this clearly hostile act. Stop with the devil's advocate bullshit.

[itsyaboi]

Most construction workers that I've met are either independent contractors or paid in cash day laborers.

[sn9]

If wedding photography had a high risk of death from heat stroke, I'd be happy for you to have to deal with local regulations putting some boundaries on how you abuse your employees while risking their lives.

Sorry about the inconvenience, but maybe being an employer isn't for you if you don't give a damn about the people for whom you're responsible.

[Auracle]

It's not about not giving people breaks, it's about unknowingly breaking laws.

My wife is my only second shooter so obviously she's treated well, or she wouldn't do it. In my contract is the clause that we can't be subjected to dangerous working conditions, and a few weeks ago I had a wedding where I absolutely needed to take a break to sit in the shade and drink.