Rural Montana religious colonies fight labor law

[rug]

MATT VOLZ, Associated Press
Updated 06:20 p.m., Wednesday, April 25, 2012

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Religious colonies of Hutterites in rural Montana are fighting the state's attempts to impose a labor law backed by businesses that complain they can't outbid the low cost of the communal workers.

The Hutterites are Protestants similar to the Amish and Mennonites who live a life centered on their religion, but unlike the others, Hutterites live in German-speaking communes scattered across northern U.S. states and Canada.

They don't pay wages, don't vote and don't enlist in the military. They make their own clothes, produce their own food and construct their own buildings.

"Their core belief is that they have no property. All the property and labor they have, they contribute to the colony," Ron Nelson, an attorney for the Big Sky Colony, told the Montana Supreme Court.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Rural-Montana-religious-colonies-fight-labor-law-3509570.php

[pipoman]

1. Not knowing the full story

these groups of like mind, regardless their mind set (as long as it is peaceful), who act in concert for the betterment of the whole, is the personification of the "American way".

[jenwilson]

2. They don't help others

That is most certainly the opposite of the "American Way." They send no money to Washington, like the rest of us do, to help others.

[saras]

3. Those of "us" who chose to do the sorts of things that pay that sort of money...

They also don't use a lot of stuff that other Americans use, that much of our taxes either go to, or go to waste instead of.

I'd rather America move towards them than that they move towards America.

[oilpro2]

4. "They also don't use a lot of stuff"

Do they drive cars on roads? Do the mail letters? Do they go to doctors and dentists? Do they have telephones that can call 911? Do they breathe fresh air? Do they drink fresh water? Do they do or have any of these advantages our society as a whole paid for or invested in or protected?

Just curious. If they lived in a jungle in Brazil, or on an Indian Ocean island, as some tribes still do, I could understand this position being taken.