[saymaListserv] Fwd: Put Your Money Where Their Mouths Are -- Economic Ju...

[Vmbra at aol.com]

Having spent a reasonable amount of time in the developing world, I'm well 
aware that children are often workers within traditional family settings, and 
that seems less artificial than the US system of assigning "chores" and meting 
out various rewards in response.

However, child labor in factories is a different ball game entirely.  I'm 
sorry, but I don't accept better dexterity as an excuse for child labor in 
factories, even if it is occasionally correct.  The smaller size of children in 
England made them better suited for chimney sweeping than adults, but that did not 
make the practice right.  Nor did children so employed survive well.

Children working outside the home can be entirely too readily exploited (and 
historically have been, even if there may be some factories that are 
exemplary).  As a practice, we should aim for decent work for adults so that their 
children can have the time to become literate.  I am not persuaded that allowing 
child labor will accomplish this.

cps
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