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> Capitalist societies are one of the few places where children don't work. This is simply not true. Essentially every capitalist country has had extensive chi
by csb6 3y ago
> Capitalist societies are one of the few places where children don't work.
This is simply not true. Essentially every capitalist country has had extensive child labor for long periods in their capitalist development. There was widespread child labor in the early 1900s U.S. - a very capitalist economy then and now. Many developing countries with capitalist economies (such as Ivory Coast and Ghana - you know, the ones in the article) also have extensive child labor today.
- xyzzyz 3y agoWhich countries didn’t have widespread child labor in early 1900s?
- csb6 3y agoNone of them - capitalist or not, they all had it at that time, and many continue to have it to this day as seen with Ghana and the Ivory Coast. So capitalism doesn’t end child labor, which is my point. It can even expand it or worsen conditions where doing so is profitable.
- rayiner 3y agoAll of these countries, like everywhere else, started with with child labor. The difference is that the countries who no longer need it are almost universally capitalist.
- hezralig 3y agoThe United States currently has child labor including in meat packing and agricultural positions.
- rayiner 3y agoAnd? In my country, where socialism is one of the four pillars of the political system, child labor is universal.
- gowld 3y agoOf course, Pakistan is "socialist" but the Chinese Communist Party and its "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" are "capitalist".
- rayiner 3y agoThat’s true, but it supports my point not yours. In 1950, Pakistan and China both had a GDP per capita around $600. Today, China is probably within a generation of becoming a developed country and eliminating child labor. Pakistan is nowhere close. Of course capitalism doesn’t eliminate child labor overnight. Villages in Pakistan and to a lesser extent China would starve to death if you eliminated child labor overnight. But capitalism is the only system that has proven capable of nearly eliminating it from a society over time.