In Defense of Child Labor on This Day in History

This Day in History: Today is World Day Against Child Labour. I am actually FOR child labor so I will not be celebrating World Day Against Child Labour. No one likes the image of children working in factories, but no one ever asked what the alternative was, or is. It may make some bleeding heart feel good to shut down a sweat shop, but we never see the negative effects of doing so. The people, and children who worked there are now out of a much needed job in an area where poverty is already rampant. They now fall victim to child traffickers, the sex trade and or a life of crime. It was this way in the West as well. In 1697 John Locke urged families to put their children to work at age three or else they would have only “bread and water, and that very scantily too.” "These children were destitute...Their only refuge was the factory,” which “saved them from death by starvation.”~Ludwig von Mises

When the factories in the West were shut down, children were forced to look for usually lower-paying and more dangerous jobs in the countryside. Over time, conditions improved to where children did not have to work so hard. I however appreciate the work my parents made me do when I was a child. I hated it at the time, but in looking back I am glad they did it. To this day, I think less of someone who has never picked up a hammer or a shovel. Oh, and keep the above picture handy for the next time someone wants to talk to you about "white privilege."