We’re constantly told that we should feel ashamed when we buy clothing items that have been made in countries with child labor. We’re always told that we as Western consumers are exploiting children in third-world nations. Is this really the case? Not quite.
First, children working in manufacturing accounts for a very small portion of the jobs that kids actually have. Most of them work in agriculture and services, which tend to hurt children a lot more than sewing men’s underwear. Second, when their parents are unable to work, children have to get jobs to feed themselves. Third, when we intervene through legislation and businesses no longer hire children, they are forced to go into prostitution. Fourth, with free markets, private property rights and economic freedoms, child labor goes away all by itself because society gets more prosperous (like the United States in the first half of the 20th century).
Learn Liberty explores further in this video embedded below from Economics Professor Benjamin Powell:
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