I mean, I would argue you're not making a rational argument here. > Allowing kids to work for construction is going to improve lives more than blindly pushing

I mean, I would argue you're not making a rational argument here. > Allowing kids to work for construction is going to improve lives more than blindly pushing everyone regardless of desire or aptitude in college and graduating them with a worthless degree and a half mil in debt. That's pretty vivid imagery for someone who doesn't want an appeal to emotion. It even has "won't someone think of the children" vibes. The arguments against this are that we've litigated it in the 1920s and discovered that child labor = exploited labor. Children have less volition than adults and so we're putting them into a vulnerable position by including them in an adversarial relationship of negotiating for pay/work. I'm not saying kids have to go to college to make a living (at the moment that seems clearly unnecessary). But why shouldn't kids go to a trade school to learn in a safer environment, instead of being at risk in on-the-job learning in dangerous environments? Also there are other pieces of school that are more fundamental to day-to-day life than college. I learned a significant portion of my communication skills in high school. Are you okay with kids missing out on high school in order to take a job? That feels like it is likely to severely limit their ability to get other work later in life if they should ever lose that one skill they learned. "Jack of all trades, master of none, but better than a master of one." The whole point of school is to get a broad base of skills that you can apply to multiple situations. Any work kids would do in their formative years has the potential to undermine this by competing for their time.