A good segment on Stossel, but David Boaz is just incorrect that “child labor” is not an issue in rich countries. Millions of kids (age 10-15) in this A+ country want to work but cannot work because of child labor laws combined with minimum wage. I would say that the absence of child labor is actually a very serious cultural and economic problem. During formative years, people are denied very valuable experience in the workplace where they would be learning real skills, interacting with customers and adults, handling money, becoming independent, defining themselves in a productive way, and other tasks that will one day be essential to life functioning. Instead we stick them in tax-funded desks or maybe let them run around with balls on fields. When they turn 22 or 25 and encounter life for the first, they can’t adjust or, these days, they can’t get jobs because jobs are reserved for those who can actually do stuff. So they move back home and try to prolong their work-free childhood as long as possible.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/18207/blocks-defense-of-child-labor/
Block’s Defense of Child Labor
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I am one of those who had to work “illegally” when I was 14 because of the legal working age and the fact that I sold my labor for less than the minimum wage. I was happy to finally have someone give me a chance in but furious government could discriminate against me in such a way that it was almost impossible to find a job. It was one of the best things I have done. I gained a skill that increased my experience and future value. Other life lesson taken from that job that I need not go into here.
OK smartie pants, but if the kids are out working and not in school then how do we expose them to relentless propaganda extolling the welfare and warfare state until they are in their mid-20s? You didn’t think of that did you.
Signed
The Gummint
Hey Jeff,
I saw this episode when it aired and haven’t re watched it so I’m recalling from memory and could be wrong. But I think when David Boaz commented that child labor isn’t an issue in rich countries, he was referring to the stereotypical working in coal mines, abusive work conditions etc. caricature of “child labor” that John Stossel referred to in asking the question. So in that sense, I think he was saying rich countries don’t have the issue of child labor because of the overall increase in wealth that has resulted in us no longer needing to work 14-16 hours a day in coal mines or whatnot.
Having said that, certainly your point about the harmful effects of the min wage law is quite valid. I think the points you make are not only extremely accurate, but generally seem to be under-appreciated. Even when I have this conversation with others, the reaction is more along the lines of “ya thats a bummer he can’t deliver newspapers and make a few extra bucks or what have you” but as you point out the potential benefits, and thus negative consequences of not having access to these benefits, are of serious significance in my view.
yes, that’s right. I know what David meant and he is right in a sense but I only wanted to point out that the laws against it are just as harmful here as anywhere.
Rob… Should look into the chemical industry. Working conditions are nasty. Government sets up exposure limits that are higher than the general population’s exposure.
Why is that nasty? If you’re going to be working around chemicals all day, wouldn’t you expect higher exposure than the general public? A proper measure of safety wouldn’t be against the general public, but upon health and medical standards. Not to say that government regulators are the best judges of that.
The rod quivers in my house if I come home and the chores are not done. Any kid over 12 who is not stacked and packed with work at home, school and, hopefully, outside the home and school, is doomed to failure, in my humble opinion.
You sound like a fun guy.
”As long as the child will be trained not by love, but by fear, so long will humanity live not by justice, but by force. As long as the child will be ruled by the educator’s threat and by the father’s rod, so long will mankind be dominated by the policeman’s club, by fear of jail, and by panic of invasion by armies and navies.”
— Boris Sidis, from “A lecture on the abuse of the fear instinct in early education” in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1919
H/T Stefan Molyneux
Please show me, in writing, any evidence which directly links loving discpline of a child with living “in fear of the policeman’s club” Those with a clean conscience have little to fear.
What if I decide not to do your research for you? Will you beat me for disobedience? Or do you only hit people smaller than yourself?
One should be careful not to fall in to the “One True Scotsman” trap – by restricting yourself to looking at “loving discipline” you can neatly define away any evidence that using physical violence against defenseless children to get your way is harmful, by claiming that every piece of evidence of harm is only proof that the “discipline” was not “loving” enough.
During the last few weeks in Kansas City, groups of teens have been “flash-mobbing” on the Country Club Plaza, an affluent shopping district. Everyone’s been calling for heavy-handed police presence, tighter curfews, and draconian fines for the parents, etc. No one has even considered that maybe if these kids had jobs (youth unemployment in KC is higher than average, about 30%) they might be less inclined to violence.
Oh, crap. Just crap. i delivered newspapers on the West Side of Chicago when I was seven.And I was a skinny little girl. I bought my own bicycle when I was seven. The other day my dad was whining, “My dad never even bought me a bike.” I said, “My dad never bought me a bike either.” My GRANDSON wanted expensive DC shoes so he bought them with his own money.
Pin a rose on my nose, but meanwhile, quit taking these “stances” just to drum up ink.
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