Child Labor Laws: anachronism?

[silas]

I think child labor laws are an anachronism.

I say this, and apparently most people have images of children working in coal mines. But let me say what I mean. Of course we should not force any child to work, but I believe we should allow it. I'm not advocating child slavery; just that we should give them some of the options we give adults.

If a 10-year-old applies for a job at a coal mine, and the owner decides to hire him, I see no problem with that (so long as no one forces it). And 10 minutes into his first shift, when he decides to quit, I have no problem with that either.

But seriously, how many children do you know are going to want to work in a coal mine? Or sweatshop? I think practically any work will make them want to reevaluate their education, making them realize it’s more important than they thought it was.

[silas]

American complaints about child labor persuaded factories in Bangladesh to stop hiring adolescents.

Let's have a little quiz.

What do you think happened to those adolescents?

a. they moved back in with their parents

b. they went back to school

c. they learned how to live off garbage(or starved)

d. they became prostitutes

Both C and D are correct! If you got this right, congratulations, you win an all expenses paid trip to…

...

Bangladesh, where the prostitutes cost less than a pair of shoes!

[jonbroad87]

since america isnt bangladesh i dont see your point. Kids in america dont work. They go to school and live with their parents. I think that if we allow smaller kids to work not only will company's try to take advantage of the kids naiveity but will raise childrens rate of being seriously hurt and more children will drop out of school believeing that they can do better without it.
By children i mean kids under the age of 16. I believe that at 16 kids should be able to work and overall they do.

And this is coming from a business advocate.

[silas]

Take advantage of them how? They would have to be paid minimum wage (if anyone did hire them)

Once again: I'm not saying anyone forces them to work, and no one is forced to hire them. I doubt anyone would hire them, considering how unreliable a worker who doesn't rely on his job for his living would be.

I just firmly believe that the government has NO right to say where or whether I work no matter how old I am.

By the way: I dropped out of school and did fine without it.

let's see how many more months pass before someone else replys

[dockirk]

O.K. Silas, I'm still here! Its good to see someone is reading/posting. What about the argument that child labor laws were inacted because the situation was so crappy in the first place??? Have you read Charles thingyens? How can you be so sure that the situation wouldn't slowly revert back to that?

BTW - My parents both have Master's degrees, but I am the only one of their three children to finish high school. And....both my "dropout" brothers make more than I do!

Todd

[dockirk]

That should have read "Charles thingyens." Sorry....

[dockirk]

I just figured out that I am NOT making typing errors. The computer filter wont allow me to type "D*ckens" because it thinks it is a cuss word. Lets try it with some other non-cuss words that sound like cuss words:

Peathingy
thingyneys
thingyens
Penal Institution
thingy Nixon

I suppose now we could talk about censorship....

[jonbroad87]

that sucks. maybe there is a setting you could turn off on your computer.