Word: laborer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Third World child labor is perhaps one of the most strongly condemned and despised labor practices in the Western mass consciousness today. The typical, and virtually universal, Western response to issues relating to child labor is advocating a blanket ban on such practices. Unfortunately, such a reaction, while completely understandable and certainly well intentioned, often overlooks the complexity of the underlying issues which govern labor market conditions in poorer countries. In fact, these bans are counterproductive to the extent that they may harm the very segments of society which they aim to protect: The trouble with a blanket...
...answer to child labor is not to ban Western companies from hiring kids, for a variety of reasons. For one, if the Nike factory doesn't hire them, some other probably more exploitative local manufacturer (over whom Western public opinion holds little sway) will...if they're lucky. If not, then they'll probably just try to survive by begging or rummaging through rubbish heaps--too many kids are forced to do this already...
...imposing a blanket ban on child labor, we're effectively giving up any leverage that we might have to influence these kids in positive ways. If children are working anyway, it is preferable that they be hired by companies answerable to people in the West instead of the myriad domestic slave factories that currently thrive. With multinational companies, some method of responsibility could be worked out by which working conditions for children could be strictly monitored, their wages raised, and, most important of all, arrangements made for providing them with some form of education...
...expense with possible government or other donor subsidy--for another four or five hours in the factory where they work. Such a plan where the benefits of education don't come at the expense of wages is one of the most promising options for kids trapped in the child labor racket...
...argument can be made that we could ban child labor by simultaneously implementing a living wage requirement for adults. Such a living wage would then allow parents to provide for their families without having the children go out and work. While attractive, this proposal ignores the fact that there would still be no incentive for children to get an education under a living wage scenario, even assuming that such a wage is sufficient to allow two adults to enroll their 4.5 kids in schools. The poorest classes in developing countries might not fully realize the long-run value...