It’s the Pitts: A Nation of Pansies

by Lee Pitts

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 particular business. 

I didn’t enter any business that depended on luck – gambling – or based on connections – politics. I didn’t enter any business requiring huge assets to begin with, 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 one out of business overnight is the proposed legislation 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. 

1. In “high heat” workers doing heavy labor in full sun may require 40-minute rest breaks after every 20 minutes of work. 

This means in a standard eight-hour day there would be 160 minutes of work done, which is not even two hours. Keep in mind, these rules were dreamed up by bureaucrats who are used to doing less than two hours of work per day in an air-conditioned office.

2. Another proposed ridiculous regulation says at least one quart of water must be provided per hour, and hydration breaks must be encouraged every 15 minutes. 

I guarantee if a person is drinking this much water, they’re also gonna need several bathroom breaks, which further lessens the amount of work getting done.

3. The new rules recognize the heat index and sun exposure as risk factors, stating “direct sunlight can raise the experienced heat index by up to 13 percent, and protections are needed when workers wear protective gear which retains heat.” 

Without some nitwit at a desk telling us, I think we’ve already figured out for ourselves not to wear long underwear when it’s 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

4. The new proposed regs say cooling areas with shade or mechanical ventilation should be located close to workplace. 

Does this mean 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 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 Fahrenheit, which is pretty much every day of the year from June through September in most parts of cow country.

5. Under the proposed New Mexico 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 than a two dollar cookstove” or “We’ll have to feed hens ice chips today to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs.”

6. The proposed rules call for acclimation plans for new and returning workers, and their workload should gradually be increased over several days. 

Does this mean 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 10 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.