Making children and adults compete in the labor market so business owners can protect their profit margins doesn’t seem off to you?
I wouldn’t want to subsidize some company’s low wages by lending them my kid at a discount rate, but that’s just me.
I wouldn’t want to subsidize some company’s low wages by lending them my kid at a discount rate, but that’s just me.
I don't believe in magical thinking. People will do what they need to in order to survive. I understand why people have such a visceral reaction to kids working, but action is generally better than waiting around for someone to save you.
I lived and worked in a few places as a teenager, including one where many of my teenage coworkers ended up dropping out of high school to work as close to full-time as they could at the urging of their parents (or grandparents). They worked hard, but I’m sure you can imagine the impact this had on their already shaky prospects. I left and am doing okay, but that wasn’t the norm.
Child labor is a fundamentally different beast across the classes and regions of America, and it’s either naive or disingenuous to pretend kids picking up a little spending money and some life skills is the primary form it takes.
Either we accept the idea that it's moral that someone needs to effectively be a slave to the system to enjoy basic rights such as a roof, food and medical care, or we don't. Age shouldn't play a role in this.
Ah well, who am I kidding? (shovels another load of babies into Mammon's burning maw.)
With you on the struggle against modern slavery that is rampant against adults, let's not make it a child/teen only concern, but until then we certainly need to distinguish adults from the to become grown up men and women.
There is a reason we have different moral, legislation and rules w.r.t the treatment of children. That applies to employment, intimate relationships, sales of stimulants, ability to hold a credit cards etc.
All down to the fact all the way to being a teen, humans are still in the process of brain and experiences maturation to take on society and independence on their own, without special protection.
Fast food is a good example. It went from a mostly teen job to a mostly adult one, are we really better off because of it?
Is this....a trick question? Of course we are. Undeniably so.
You are looking at it from the wrong perspective - it's not about teens being able to make a little money working at McDonalds. It's about letting companies use cheap labour because they know teens aren't in the position to demand good pay and/or benefits. It drags the entire society down, just so you can say teens have the opportunity to work - and for what? Under 18s should stay in full time education, not work in fast food.
>>But from what you guys are saying, you prefer the latter, and I find it extremely distasteful.
I find it extremely distatestul that you seem to prefer a society where teens are part of the labour force to a society where they aren't, so I guess we won't come to an agreement.
You are simply speaking from a position of privilege. The distasteful part I find is that you would refuse them agency to make their lives better and rather they would just wallow in poverty. If you had your way, I would be working for McDonalds rather than a FAANG today. And that is why I'm strongly against this kind of "save the teenagers by harming them" kind of thinking.
Jobs for teenagers develop independence, time management skills, discipline, and a way to improve their situation when society fails. And if you want to wait for society to fix all ills, well, that would be nice, but for the rest of us, we would like to have more say in our destiny.
Again, you are looking at it from the wrong angle. It's not about denying teens their independence, it's not even about "saving them" as you put it. This is 100% about denying companies access to the teenage labour pool, it shouldn't exist, they shouldn't need it, and any business that relies on it should cease. If you do allow it, you basically skew the entire labour market, dragging down the society - let's say that yes, you are an adult in need, who has fallen on hard times. Why should mcdonalds employ you, when they can employ a 16 year old, pay them less and offer them zero benefits. You've screwed yourself, because you want to give teens some fake "independence".
>>Jobs for teenagers develop independence, time management skills, discipline, and a way to improve their situation when society fails.
Yes, because the rest of the world where working until you're 18 is not allowed is just full of morons who have never developed any of those skills, you're right /s.
>>but for the rest of us, we would like to have more say in our destiny.
It's incredible to me that to you "having a say in your destiny" is allowing teenagers work for a corporation like mcdonald. It's like reading some sci-fi.