During the Industrial Revolution, child labor was ubiquitous. They earned 10-20% of what an adult did and when punishment was meted out, such as being horse whipped for tardiness, they took it with less protest than adults. Furthermore, their small size was often an advantage. For instance, textile mills, as pictured here, had machinery that spun thread at high speeds. Sometimes these machines jammed or became clogged. The small fingers and hands of the children were ideal for unclogging these machines, which made children important in the production process. Therefore, factory owners employed children because it helped in the production of goods. But to be fair, modern kids, in industrialized nations, often have to go without 5 bars of Internet signal and sometimes develop painful blisters on their thumbs.
Children where very important in mines for centuries! Due to their size, digging ways through the ground wasn't needed to be full human sized.
Historians believe that this lead to the fairy tales and fiction about dwarfs in mining.
Free market capitalism has freed more people from poverty, increased our life spans, reduced infant mortality and increased the wealth of the entire world more than any other system yet devised by humans.
It’s not perfect but it’s a mighty good start.
Well, that depends which part of the world you look at. We mostly outsourced poverty, slavery and child labour to be able to afford our current lifestyle. And speaking of the world, we fucked that one up, as well.
In southeast Asia, you're too old to knit carpets for Ikea in the age of 12, but you're not allowed to sew Nike shoes before the age of 14 which creates a two-year loss of income that's mostly filled with prostitution.
In Gambia you're starting to earn money by burning cables and so harvesting copper whilst poisoning yourself in the age of 6.
Every luxury in our life means ten persons suffer elsewhere.
That's why I specified modern kids, in industrialized nations, as not being forced into child labour. As you mentioned, we got rid of it locally, but it's still an issue elsewhere.
Historians believe that this lead to the fairy tales and fiction about dwarfs in mining.
It’s not perfect but it’s a mighty good start.
In Gambia you're starting to earn money by burning cables and so harvesting copper whilst poisoning yourself in the age of 6.
Every luxury in our life means ten persons suffer elsewhere.