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Comment by franczesko | Hacker News Reader

"I hate to see more legislation and regulation in general"

With the same approach we would still have child labor in factories...

And no net neutrality.

Net neutrality was terminated in the US at the end of 2017, and this remains the case. An executive order in 2021 did not change this.

I used to think this was a compelling argument. Unfortunately, child labor is really good economics. So is slavery.

An economics textbook I studied at university calculated the value of a slave in the US before the Civil War. Conclusion? “Perhaps it is a good thing they did not try to quantize back then. Slavery was profitable.”

At the micro level it may sound like good economics. Slavery is not good macro economics. For example, slaves in the US south were intelligent human beings that had they been in the free market with their ideas and efficient use of time and labor, the south would have advanced beyond plantations at a similar rate to the north prior to the US civil war.

We should tell this to Dubai's migrant workers.

Even if it turned out that slavery was enormously profitable at both micro and macro scales that still wouldn't make it a good idea. Just because something is profitable that doesn't mean anyone should involve themselves in it, all it means is that someone is going to be more likely to try involving themselves in it. It falls on the rest of us (and so our governments) to punish anyone who acts in ways that are both abhorrent and highly profitable and that punishment must be much more extreme than any potential gains for it to work as a deterrent.

What does child labour and slavery being profitable have to do with whether “without regulations we’d still have child labour” is a compelling argument?

Sexual harassment laws existed prior to the "me too" movement. Known harassers were still in positions within their companies. The cultural movement helped change the tolerance of this behavior. I sincerely doubt that anything but a small minority of children would be toiling away in factories today in the USA.

In todays litigious USA, children would come with too much liability to employ in many many settings. Children are quite capable of doing many different jobs. Total exclusion from the workplace delays the earnings, experience, learning, and networking of people.

Child labor laws have made exceptions for performers for some reason. I think most people would agree that this is fine. Why have we not made exceptions for other areas of work?

A less regulated child labor market would find those exceptions naturally.

Oh come on, let's just admit that USA is much more sex-obsessed than the rest of the world..

Do you have any data at all to back this up?

The whole world does not understand that some nudity and affection makes anything PG rated, but depiction of violence and weapons really has to get very visual before it gets that rating.

A small minority already toils away in factories in the USA:

>In fiscal year 2021, the division found 2,819 minors employed in violation of the law and assessed employers with nearly $3.4 million in civil money penalties.

https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20220729

If it was legal it would be very widespread and you're lying to yourself if you say otherwise.

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