I’ve been self-employed my entire working life and in my eight businesses I looked upon everyone as a competitor. If I didn’t feel confident I could outsmart and outwork my competition I didn’t enter that business. I didn’t enter any business that depended on luck (gambling) or that was based on connections (politics). I didn’t enter any business that required huge assets to begin with, that required borrowing money or was prone to overregulation by the government. For example, I’d never partner with The Bureau of Land Management.
A good example of how the government can put you out of business overnight is the proposed legislation that was recently unmasked by the always-interesting New Mexico Stockman. It seems the New Mexico Environment Department is attempting to adopt a new set of rules aimed at preventing heat related illness and injuries in the work place to take effect in July 2025. The proposed rules would require employers to implement workplace safeguards when the heat index exceeds 80 degrees Fahrenheit. (The heat index uses air temperature and humidity to arrive at what the temperature feels like to the human body.)
Here are just a few examples of the idiocy.
• “In ‘high heat’ workers doing heavy labor in full sun may require 40 minute rest breaks after every 20 minutes of work.”
That means in a standard eight hour day there would be 160 minutes of work done. That’s not even two hours! Keep in mind these rules were dreamed up by bureaucrats who are used to doing less than two hours work per day in some air conditioned office!
• Another proposed ridiculous regulation says that at least one quart of water must be provided per hour and that hydration breaks be encouraged every 15 minutes.
I guarantee if you’re drinking that much water you’re also gonna need several bathroom breaks which further lessens the amount of work that gets done.
• The new rules recognizes the heat index and sun exposure as risk factors. “Direct sunlight can raise the experienced heat index by up to 13% and protections are needed when workers wear protective gear that retains
heat.”
I think we’ve already figured out for ourselves without some nitwit at a desk telling us that you don’t wear long underwear when it’s 85 degrees outside.
• The new proposed regs say that cooling areas with shade or mechanical ventilation should be located close to workplace.
Does this mean that a truck has to pull a trailer with a roof on it behind every cowboy on the ranch so he can shade up in a cooling area? Trust me, cowboys figured out a long time ago that trees provide excellent shade and, lacking that, horses can also provide shade during the 160 minutes the cowboy will be allowed to work when it gets above 80 degrees. Which is pretty much every day of the year from June through September in most parts of cow country.
• Under the proposed N.M. regulations monitoring systems such as buddy checks, self-assessments or pre-shift safety briefings will be required.
We all know how much bureaucrats love meetings but cowboys and farm workers, not so much. Whoever wrote these rules has never met a cowboy They already do self-assessments such as “It’s hotter that a two dollar cookstove” or, “We’ll have to feed hens ice chips today to keep from laying hard boiled eggs.”
• The proposed rules call for acclimation plans for new and returning workers and their workload should gradually be increased over several days.
Does this means the 160 minute a day worker might start out at 60 minutes A DAY and gradually work up to 160? If these proposed rules and regulations are implemented every farmer and rancher in New Mexico will go out of business.
I don’t know about you but I got hotter than ten acres of chili peppers reading these proposed rules and regulations. What are the bureaucrats and politicians trying to do, create a nation of pansies who are just like them?
Believe me, America works when Americans work!
