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To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (42759)	12/8/2003 1:24:33 PM
From: LLCF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

< But education & time for recreation should take precedence over labor. If the child chooses to join labor force once she has completed basic education, that's her choice. Greed is what causes an injustice like child labor. Those without a conscience or moral fiber in their greed create an ugly life for life's most vulnerable creatures. Those who invest in companies who employ child labor are indeed Mr. Scrooges--heartless, greedy misers who the world would be far better if they were never born. > I agree with the last portion of your statement as it assumes the child would be working in a sweat shop for example. OTOH working together 'on the earth' can be a profound 'education' that most Americans go through life NEVER getting around to and often leaves on feeling disconected and anxiety ridden. IMO you're assertion must be taken in a very narrow context, and ALSO misses a vast portion 'education' that CANNOT be taught in a classroom. DAK

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (42759)	12/8/2003 2:05:51 PM
From: macavity	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Hmm! I will replace 'civilized' with 'advanced', if I may. I cannot claim that your observation is a rule of nature so I cannot subscribe to it as passionately as you. Not all societies are currently advanced to this level to have/afford this. Like I said, show me an OECD that has not had a significant proportion of their national savings - infrastructural investments/ raw materials - derived from child and/or slave labour. My mother is the only one of her 5 siblings that went past secondary school. She went to university in the states on a full scholarship, qualified as a biochemist then qualified as a doctor in England and then settled down as a chemical pathologist. She is a bona-fide academic and bookworm. My immediate family is exceptionally educationally inclined and operates as such. My point is that she only managed to go to school after the age of 12, because her scholarships paid for the upkeep of her mother and siblings. As a younger daughter, she was not expected to goto secondary school and was actually beaten for taking the exams and getting into secondary school (on scholarship) until an elder cousin explained to my grandmother how a scholarship worked. You appear unable to grab my essential point. Education that you deem a necessity and which is an essential part of any progressive and advancing society IS A LUXURY IN CERTAIN SOCIETIES. Please understand this before you start complaining that the world is not as it should be. The benefits of education are undeniable, but that does not mean much to people worried about feeding themselves for the next month. If I can ensure (indirectly) that by paying a few sons and daughters salaries/wages to guarantee that they do not have to spend time on the farm or in the store. If I can help towards providing them with a higher degree of financial independence their society/community will advance under its own steam. Why? Because that is how societies have always progressed. This is what free-trade is about. Would I prefer to subsidise a family directly and compensate a family to educate one or more children rather than a pair of Nike Shoes - Yes, of course, I would. It is all well and good criticising people who employ child labour, when you make no acknowledgement to other solutions or the fact that your own society developed in a similar way. No! You want to buy trainers made in Iowa, or wherever, as this somehow will improve the situation. How? Please explain this to me. You should be threatening Nike to boycott their products if they do not provide schools/power/clean water or such to make some effort to accelerate the societies/communities that they employ. And yes maybe it is better that I was not born. Who knows what terrors I may be unwittingly forcing upon people and communities unseen by me? All I have to go on is the fact that any person given half the chance and protected from intereference will try to better themselves and that society in the long run is better for it. By buying their goods and services I provide them a solution (albeit an imperfect one), a means for their society to do this and better themselves slowly but surely. And you, Ann? What would you do? You say how terrible the world is and continue safely and ignorantly in your own little cocooned world. Raise the tariffs!! Put up the embargo!! For soon, we will all be Little Islanders once more! -macavity