[goldenshale]

Wait, you mean kids in developing countries work in order to help their families survive poverty. Oh my word, we should stop buying chocolate. Or wait, then nobody is making any money. Seriously, haven't we learned from the "Chinese sweatshop" hysteria throughout the 2000s that if people want to work they are often digging themselves out of a whole rather than being forced into one?

[KPGv2]

The response here isn't to give money to child enslavers because the alternative is more poverty.

The response here is to demand legislation from your own country that makes it unprofitable to companies that employ child labor to continue to do so. Then they will fold up shop or (way more likely) pay adults more. It's not like Nestle barely makes a profit.

It's funny you cite China as evidence supporting your position, when in fact there /was/ a problem with child labor, American companies stopped doing business with those subs, and now wages are higher, the Chinese economy is stronger, and there's a lot less child labor.

Your argument also implies open borders so factory owners can hire low-wage undocumented immigrants under the table is a good thing.

For every child who earns a low wage, that's an adult not earning a wage at all.

And, to be quite honest, it's not great for your reputation to enshrine in writing your opinion that concern over children getting fingers chopped off in factories is "hysteria."

[hulitu]

> The response here is to demand legislation from your own country that makes it unprofitable to companies that employ child labor to continue to do so.

You can start with a democracy: US. Just a couple of days ago, child labor in US made headlines.

[Broken_Hippo]

Somehow, you think that a child is digging themselves out of a hole and that working instead of schooling is not them being forced into one?

[aga98mtl]

Is there even schooling available in those areas? People in rich countries fail to appreciate how bad the situation is in truly poor countries.

[Broken_Hippo]

the story literally spoke of children that longed for school, but poverty keeps them from it.

So yes, there is schooling.

[throwboatyface]

What if we, I don't know, did something to fix the poverty?

[gruez]

Easier said than done.

[kjkjadksj]

Antiunion aggression must be ruthless in these places. You can only grow some of these crops in certain regions of the world, yet despite this rare geographically granted monopoly, labor is paid perhaps the worst in these places, certainly much worse than in the western world that does nothing particularly unique in any one place. Nothing quite like coffee or chocolate or even the opium poppy. Unfortunately often when labor organizes, these movements are liable to be taken over by authoritarians who have no one’s collective interest in mind, because the power of being able to command a centrally planned economic force is just too great to not make such an attempt for the morally bankrupt charlatans among us.