Even UNICEF no longer thinks child labor is a bad thing. Parents aren't sending their kids out to work (if they even have parents) for shits and giggles. They're typically needing to choose between working and starving. So if they don't have legitimate employment in the local shoe factory for 50¢day, then they have to turn to less savory employment, often in brothels or other truly hazardous stuff.
So reducing child employment by making it illegal makes children MUCH WORSE off. Just like pretty much all government intervention, child labor laws, intended to help children be better off, instead do the exact opposite.
In South America and many parts of Asia, young girls who can't work in factories are screwed -literally. If they can get jobs they have value to their families, bringing in cash that the whole family. The whole anti- child-labor movement was spawned by Unions early in the last century to protect union wages. They recruited naive American women voters who voted emotionally rather than logically. Liberals like to think that if they're not working young girls are going to be in school or playing happily in the playground. However, if they can't get jobs there is only one way for them to earn cash.
My mother, who was born in 1930, had a job when she was ten years old working in a popcorn factory. It was a very small business run by the local parish priest. He started the business and hired those kids to keep them occupied and allow them to earn extra money. The meager profits went to the church.
My mom, who will be 93 this year and is still with us, is always talking about how much she *loved* that job. She says it got her out of the house, allowed her to hang out with her friends, and let her make enough money to not only contribute to the family income, it also gave her enough spending money to allow her and the rest of the kids to buy some occasional new clothes or a pair of shoes or to go to the "picture show" on the weekend. (It WAS the depression.)
Eventually, the heavy hand of government caused it to shut down. They came in and said all employees had to be at least sixteen. Well, all the sixteen year olds and older were working on the farm, so they couldn't get enough labor and finally had to close it down.
My mom says all the kids were mad when they had to quit working.
And what did they do that was so exploitive? They got the raw popcorn from local farmers. She said they had a hand-cranked machine that separated the kernels from the cob, and the kids like my mom, measured the kernels and filled small cloth bags. They sold it in local stores, at the local churches, and at roadside stands.
Gotta earn that drug money for mom somehow since Mother's Day is next Sunday.
ReplyDeleteKids learning work ethics? Shoot the parents.
ReplyDeleteDoing the jobs the rest of us won't, no doubt....
ReplyDeleteEven UNICEF no longer thinks child labor is a bad thing. Parents aren't sending their kids out to work (if they even have parents) for shits and giggles. They're typically needing to choose between working and starving. So if they don't have legitimate employment in the local shoe factory for 50¢day, then they have to turn to less savory employment, often in brothels or other truly hazardous stuff.
ReplyDeleteSo reducing child employment by making it illegal makes children MUCH WORSE off. Just like pretty much all government intervention, child labor laws, intended to help children be better off, instead do the exact opposite.
-John G.
Actually true.
DeleteIn South America and many parts of Asia, young girls who can't work in factories are screwed -literally. If they can get jobs they have value to their families, bringing in cash that the whole family. The whole anti- child-labor movement was spawned by Unions early in the last century to protect union wages. They recruited naive American women voters who voted emotionally rather than logically. Liberals like to think that if they're not working young girls are going to be in school or playing happily in the playground. However, if they can't get jobs there is only one way for them to earn cash.
Kids of a night manager coming to work rather than left at home alone.
ReplyDeleteWorking and babysitting at the same time is advanced parenting.
more children should go work with their mother.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to work in a McDonalds rather than mowing lawns and raking leaves when I was 10.
ReplyDeleteMy mother, who was born in 1930, had a job when she was ten years old working in a popcorn factory. It was a very small business run by the local parish priest. He started the business and hired those kids to keep them occupied and allow them to earn extra money. The meager profits went to the church.
ReplyDeleteMy mom, who will be 93 this year and is still with us, is always talking about how much she *loved* that job. She says it got her out of the house, allowed her to hang out with her friends, and let her make enough money to not only contribute to the family income, it also gave her enough spending money to allow her and the rest of the kids to buy some occasional new clothes or a pair of shoes or to go to the "picture show" on the weekend. (It WAS the depression.)
Eventually, the heavy hand of government caused it to shut down. They came in and said all employees had to be at least sixteen. Well, all the sixteen year olds and older were working on the farm, so they couldn't get enough labor and finally had to close it down.
My mom says all the kids were mad when they had to quit working.
And what did they do that was so exploitive? They got the raw popcorn from local farmers. She said they had a hand-cranked machine that separated the kernels from the cob, and the kids like my mom, measured the kernels and filled small cloth bags. They sold it in local stores, at the local churches, and at roadside stands.