There's too many factors for drawing lines. In wealthy countries laws ensuring a higher age for employment makes more sense. In really impoverished countries where there isn't enough money for a family to feed themselves I don't really think a nine year old would prefer to starve rather than work.I worked jobs around the neighborhood at 12 but that's obviously a lot easier than 10 hour shifts in a field (as the article suggests). I don't know what's right and I'm thankful I don't have to make the decisions.
Symbiote|2 years ago
> I don't know what's right and I'm thankful I don't have to make the decisions.
If you are in the USA, I think you ought to have an opinion on child labour. It's a basic point of labour law.
My vote counts in the UK, where from age 14 children can work for up to five hours on a non-school day, with a one hour break, and only between 7am and 7pm. They cannot work on anything hazardous. We don't have any significant toxic crops, but I think tobacco would count as hazardous. These rules seem to fix all the major problems in the article, while still allowing the "character building" half the commenters seek.