‘And let’s be clear about the relationship between child labor and compulsory school. It is direct.”
oh, that’s bullshit.
‘It was at the very time that governments at the state and local level were banning labor for kids that these same kids were subjected to force in making them go to school.”
near as i can tell, child labor laws go back to the 1930s.
Compulsory edication goes back to the Mayflower.
“You can talk all you want about capitalist exploitation but it makes no sense to overlook a situation surely as problematic: any kid not in his or her school desk was subjected to be kidnapped in the name of enforcing laws against so-called truancy.”
Um… Yes. And no.
child labor WAS exploitation, kids being put in dangerous situations for extensive hours to benefit a limited few. Compulsory education is usually not subject to mining cave-ins, or midnight shifts, or factory fires, and the intended benefit is for society as a whole. Not just a coal baron.
Your attempt to lump them both together is absurd.
“A system that worked without coercion was displaced by a system that depended fundamentally on coercion.”
I’m guessing you spent a lot of time in detention…
Except it didn’t work. Plenty of kids had to drop out of school to work to take care of their family. My great grandparents were quite proud of the fact that all of THEIR kids finished grade school.
“But Let’s Get Real”
Any time yuo want to start.
“If kids were allowed to work and compulsory school attendance was abolished, the jobs of choice would be at Chick-Fil-A and WalMart.”
Do you WANT someone counting your change who can’t do math?
How about asking someone who can’t read where they have a product you saw on sale in a flyer in the paper?
And still, jobs of “CHOICE” give way to jobs of opportunity. Only so many kids can work at Chik-Fil-A. Someone will be sorting trash or picking up rocks in the fields.
“And they would be fantastic jobs too, instilling in young people a work ethic, which is the inner drive to succeed, and an awareness of attitudes that make enterprise work for all.”
Is that what you remember of the twenties? Kids coming out of the mines with a drive to succeed?
Do you really think that anyone who employs underage children is really motivated by enterprise for the benefit of all?
“It would give them skills and discipline that build character, and help them become part of a professional network.”
It’ll suck them dry before they are old enough to drink. They’ll still drink, but they’ll die young.