There she was drinking coffee, grinning at the audience like a Cheshire cat, wearing a short skirt (no, I'm not talking about Ally McBeal), and lecturing us all about horror of child labor. She was pushing the new book Child Labor: A Global Travesty. Yes folks, it was Kathie Lee Gifford. The Christmas season provides her with a fantastic opportunity to talk about toys made in Third World countries. I think the best thing, about preaching against child labor, is that it makes us all feel so warm, fuzzy and squishy inside. Logical arguments have been subsumed under the rubric of feelings. The edict of the '90s is just a rehash of the '60s: if it feels good (or if it feels good to feel good) do it. Opinions are easy - we all have an infinite number of them. When it comes to the First World abhorrence of Third World working conditions we readily decry the motives of those evil empires like Wal-Mart and Nike.
We can envision those poor children, chained to their work-stations, suddenly freed by the humanitarians Kathie Lee Gifford and her son Cody. They skip through the streets of their Third World country, hand in hand, basking in the sunshine. They go home, gather up their school supplies that have gone unused, and skip off to school. After all, isn't that what children in the U.S. do? Yet there is a problem with this picture. Do you know what happens to children who have been "freed" from their jobs with Nike? They often turn to prostitution, they go hungry, and their families go hungry,
It doesn't hearten the soul to think about the fact these children may actually benefit from these jobs because after all, it is not a pretty picture. We'd rather think about kids playing soccer and video games than sewing soccer balls for a living.
It is tragic that these children live in a country where they have to work, because they need the money in order to eat. When have we ever heard Kathie Lee (or all the others whimpering Students for a Democratic Society wannabes on today's college campuses), talk about what to actually do with these kids? They tell us not to shop at Wal-Mart, or buy products made by Nike. They preach to us with a proud, smug look on their faces, dust off their hands to indicate a job well done and go on their way. They don't bother to tell us what happens to children who are no longer bringing home a paycheck. They don't mention that these kids often help feed their families on their salaries.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Beth Skinner's Marketplace Economics topic, please visit the Discussions page.