Child Labor

[ggeezz]

I came across this article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8570692.stm

I'll just state my conclusion. It would be evil to try to force this girl out of the factory. Not misguided or counterproductive, but EVIL.

[Grog]

It's so hard to make judgments on these sorts of things without appropriate context. Is $2/day a significant enough wage where it is helpful to her family? Are the safety concerns real or are we just comparing this to the litigation-mandated standards of a prosperous nation? Is real abuse and exploitation present or just the threat?

I would love to see every kid get to do some basic schooling, but I would rather see a ten year old factory worker than a ten year old prostitute or street beggar - or dead because the family can't afford food/medicine/shelter.

[changa]

It would be unfortunate if this girl's family were to fall farther into poverty, leading to their malnourishment or starvation (Asma believes that her income provides the essential part of her family's diet, so let's assume she is correct). Simply closing down the factory would most likely lead her to find a worse job rather than returning to school, so no good comes from that end. Closing it would not be good, and might in fact be evil. The Hippocratic oath begins with "do no harm," precisely because there's no reason to take action against a perceived problem if you can't help.

However, she is going to live and die in a dangerous factory, going home to squalor, and subjecting her children to the same in turn. The chance of injury or early death are certainly present in a place like that. So it's not as if the status quo is acceptable either. Whether simply ignoring her plight is evil by itself is an entirely separate discussion.


The only valid solution would be to improve her situation without damaging her family. I suggest bribery.

Pay this girl $2.25 per day to attend school, with a small bonus for grades above "C." Monitor to make sure she's keeping her end, and continue this program through secondary/high school graduation. Hiring a person to monitor might cost $10k, and could monitor 200 kids (4 kids per day, bimonthly). Plus the $13500 for attendance, and another 6750 for good grades, we're up to $30,250/annually. Not bad for getting 200 kids onto a path out of poverty.

This would in turn shrink the pool of available workers and raise wages, forcing the factory to considering hiring adults again -- they hire children now because they will work for less.

[ggeezz]

Pay this girl $2.25 per day to attend school, with a small bonus for grades above "C." Monitor to make sure she's keeping her end, and continue this program through secondary/high school graduation. Hiring a person to monitor might cost $10k, and could monitor 200 kids (4 kids per day, bimonthly). Plus the $13500 for attendance, and another 6750 for good grades, we're up to $30,250/annually. Not bad for getting 200 kids onto a path out of poverty.

I used to think this way too. It is the conventional wisdom. Unquestioned.

But what is this girl going to do once she gets out of school? Lots of people with 4 year degrees -> economic growth is a non sequitur. People with B.A.'s and B.S.'s work in jobs created by a prosperous society, not the other way around. That's the way it's worked every time.

Of course, I fully expect that the transformation of today's 3rd world countries will be different than the US and Europe's. We funnel information to them and provide markets for their products. They can get out of poverty faster than we did. But these factors actually mean they need 4 year degrees less.

They need infrastructure and skilled labor.

[changa]

Who said anything about college, let alone university? Certainly not me. This girl is 10 years old and out of school for good it looks like. I said secondary education -- that's to 17 or 18 years old. I'd certainly love to see a vocational training course or two thrown in with that -- but not just in the shaping and sharpening of safety pins.

I taught AVID for a full two years -- I drank the "everyone should get a Bachelor's" cool-aid, and it tastes like insanity.

[ggeezz]

Who said anything about college, let alone university? Certainly not me. This girl is 10 years old and out of school for good it looks like. I said secondary education -- that's to 17 or 18 years old. I'd certainly love to see a vocational training course or two thrown in with that -- but not just in the shaping and sharpening of safety pins.

I taught AVID for a full two years -- I drank the "everyone should get a Bachelor's" cool-aid, and it tastes like insanity.

Let's suppose she's going to train to be an electrician. We could send her to school for 12 years and then she could train under an electrician for a year or two to learn how things really work. Or we could send her to school for 5 years, let her work in a factory for 7 years, and then let her train under an electrician for two years.

What are they going to teach her for that 7 years in high school that's going to make her a better electrician. It's close to nothing. The only purpose of those other 7 years in school is to get you ready for college.

BTW, that's the path America took to prosperity. Kids were kids for a while, then they did menial tasks, then they did an apprenticeship.