Child Labor

Today, I received an email from an Agata Gussman on behalf of a "Human Rights" Alerts Site, asking me to sign a petition protesting Wal-Mart's employment of child labor. Her email states that "Wal-Mart has repeatedly violated U.S. child labor laws and profited from overseas child labor abuses. A recent investigation by the National Labor Committee revealed children, some only 11 years old, were making Wal-Mart clothes in a Bangladesh factory. The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 and a half cents an hour." I replied as follows:

Dear Agata,

Let me say at the outset that I do not work for Wal-Mart, hold stock in Wal-Mart, have relatives or friends that work for Wal-Mart or any other personal connections to the company. But whether you realize it or not, the child labor that you object to so strenuously is an absolute godsend to the children working in these factories. The wages they are getting are far better than they could get elsewhere, even if the pay is a fraction of what American workers are making. I don’t condone physical abuse by the factory owners, and neither should Wal-Mart (which I'm sure they don't), but remember that these children can quit anytime they choose. The fact that they don’t is an indication that they value these jobs more than the alternative. If you are successful in your crusade, you will deprive them of a job, and force them into begging, street prostitution or worse.

My father did child labor in the iron mines of northern Minnesota, because it was the only way he and his family could survive. While your intentions may be laudable, the effects of your crusade are not. Child labor laws may sound good to people who are wealthy enough that their children don’t have to work, but these laws prevent the poorest of the poor from earning a living and surviving when they have no better alternative. If you succeed in imposing sanctions against Wal-Mart, you will take even that option away from them.

For the sake of the children, please reconsider your campaign against Wal-Mart. By creating jobs for people who otherwise would not have them, Sam Walton’s organization has done more good for people around the world than any liberal crusade for children’s rights could ever dream of.

Sincerely,

William Dwyer
(Edited by William Dwyer
on 12/10, 4:31pm)

Post 1

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 2:15pm

What an intelligent response, Bill! Bravo.

Ed

Post 2

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 2:56pm

Bill, I have to disagree with you.
The fact that the majority of these children live in inhuman conditions, pushed to work behind their physical capacities, with very low pay, and with the absence of any assistance for their health, is real!
Ciro

(Edited by Ciro D'Agostino on 12/10, 4:58pm)

Post 3

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 3:28pm

Well said Bill. The moral choices for these children are either work in a factory, or survive by other means such as child prostitution or back-breaking agricultural labor. Those are the choices. If a country or family is too impoverished to feed, clothe and educate a child what choice does the child have to survive and live on this planet? People like Agata are truly anti-life. They think a third world country is like the United States, i.e. wealthy enough to afford child labor laws. If children are being abused in this factory it is the moral obligation of that country's citizens to set up and enforce a proper government with laws to protect individuals from violent attacks, children and adults alike. But sadly the rest of the non-Western world hasn't grasped our concept of governance.

Post 4

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 4:50pm

Excellent, Bill!

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 5:11pm

Bill:I don’t condone physical abuse by the factory owners, and neither should Wal-Mart (which I'm sure they don't), but remember that these children can quit anytime they choose.

They can quit anytime they choose...?
What's slavery then?

"Capitalism cannot work with slave labor. It was the agrarian, feudal South that maintained slavery. It was the industrial, capitalistic North that wiped it out -- as capitalism wiped out slavery and serfdom in the whole civilized world of the nineteenth century.
Ayn Rand

(Edited by Ciro D'Agostino on 12/10, 5:53pm)

Post 6

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 6:08pm

Ciro, I'm not sure I follow you. Slavery is where someone is forced to work against his or her will. These children are free to quit their jobs and work elsewhere if they can find alternative employment. Of course, the physical abuse should not be tolerated, but there is nothing wrong with employing the children at these low wages and relatively long working hours if they are willing to accept these conditions. Their willingness to accept them suggests that these jobs are the best alternative they have going for them.

Generally, American companies employing child labor overseas pay wages that by the standards of third-world countries are considered very high -- better than could be obtained elsewhere. The workers are generally very happy to have these jobs. You cannot judge the pay and working conditions by American standards.

- Bill

Post 7

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 7:10pm

Bill: Slavery is where someone is forced to work against his or her will.

That's exactly what I mean! Bill.
These children are forced to work against their will.
Forced by their own parents most of the time.
I don't think that a child at 7 year old is able to make a decision on what is good for him.

Post 8

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 7:19pm

Many parents in India, Bangladesh etc... have children and sell them as slaves.
Many of them end up working in those factories where child labor is permitted.
Ciro

Post 9

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 8:01pm

Ciro,

I've heard of this and have no doubt that it's true. What I've heard of is parents with very large families but living desperately poor in rural areas sometimes sell their children, mostly very young girls to be prostitutes.

If you were a child from these circumstances, you were sold by your parents in lieu of starvation, there are much worse places to end up than an American factory.

Regarding the supporters of the NLC, I like Walter Williams pointed question:

"Here's my question to you: Do you believe these people really care about the world's poor like Nhep Chanda? If you do, I have a fountain of youth I'd like to sell you."

[From this article]:[http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams012804.asp]

Post 10

Sunday, December 10, 2006 - 10:23pm

Bill: Slavery is where someone is forced to work against his or her will.
That's exactly what I mean! Bill.
These children are forced to work against their will.
Forced by their own parents most of the time.
I don't think that a child at 7 year old is able to make a decision on what is good for him.

Well, if a child at 7 is not able to make a decision as to what is good for him, then what's wrong with the parents forcing him to work, if doing so is necessary for the family's (and child's) survival and well-being? In the early days of this country, it was not uncommon for a farmer's children to start working at the young age of 5. In order to make do, everyone had to chip in and help with the chores. You wouldn't call that "slavery," would you?

Also, some of these children may not have parents, and must fend for themselves. If the only way they can survive is by working for Wal-Mart, what right does anyone else have to deny them that opportunity?

- Bill

Post 11

Monday, December 11, 2006 - 1:20am

If we are going to start talking about compelling children to act against their will, then how is compelling a child to attend school against his will to do schoolwork against his will not slave labor?

Post 12

Monday, December 11, 2006 - 5:53am

Schoolwork is slavery. Most of the child labor laws on the books should be eliminated anyway. The sad truth is that it's difficult these days to get kids to do any kind of work. How many adolescents do you see delivering newspapers?

Some years ago, I knew a bright 14-year-old who was quite unhappy because he couldn't get out there and work. He was homeschooled and just wanted to do something that made a difference.

About the time child labor laws were passed was about the same time the "bad teenager" came about. Do you honestly think that if kids were out there working they would be shooting up their schools or getting drunk on weekends?

In my acting class last year, I met a girl who was 19 and completely on her own. You can only imagine how grown up she was. She was more mature than at a lot 30-year-olds.

Post 13

Monday, December 11, 2006 - 6:55am

But, Luke, what is the outcome for a child forced to slave labor? is it the same as forcing him to take medicine or sending him to school against his will?
Do you think that a child forced to slave labor is afraid or cares to kill a person if he is paid 20 dollars. Do you think that a child pushed to slave labor is afraid once an adult to rape your wife
or kidnap your son? let alone the fact of becoming terrorist.
Ciro

(Edited by Ciro D'Agostino on 12/11, 6:58am)

Post 14

Monday, December 11, 2006 - 7:30am