Quote from rew:
Ah yes, the excuse made by advocates of child factory labor everywhere. What would the children be doing if they weren't working at the factory? Going to school.
Child labor ended in this country only when congress made it illegal. Prior to that, you heard the same old excuses about how families would starve if they couldn't send their children to factories to work for pennies an hour. What actually happened is that, without a big supply of cheap children to hire, factories had to raise their wages and hire adults.
They would be in school? Really? Where would they get the money because people in china, nepal and all those other asian countries have to PAY to go to school. They also wear uniforms in poor countries...where is a child to get the money for the uniform. And also where would they get money to eat? No school lunch program in those countries either. How much do you think a starving kid is going to learn in school?
When I was in philippines last year, I spoke to some street children who were begging for money. I asked how much they made per day and they said they made about 15 pesos per day begging (34 cents) on averge. The best day they ever had begging, was 50 pesos (or about $1) They usually have to spend all day out there to make that and its only enough money for 1 meal (and not that big of a meal either) Could you study with one meal per day? Is it any wonder if a kid is offered wages of $2 per day, a place to sleep, and 3 meals per day that they wouldnt jump at the chance? Especially if they are on their own without anyone to take care of them. Americans forget that the rest of the world is a completely different place to live and the rules that go here are not the rules that work somewhere else.
If americans want to boycott some place that has child labor, at least send money to the kids for food & schooling every month. But most boycotters wont do that. They just want to punish the factory owners and dont care what happens after that.