>A teenager earning extra pocket money by working after-school is part of the
life of the massively privileged and is NOT "child labor".

>I've met many migrant farmworkers. Any beekeeper pollinating any fruit or
veggie crop is certain to meet quite a few.  It may surprise you to hear
that "Child labor" is something that is still not outlawed or even regulated
in US agriculture, so these migrant kids are working in the fields with
their parents:
http://motherjones.com/print/139467

>No surprise, the kids move around too often to get an education, and many
end up dropping out. More end up with serious injuries.  Most have nothing
except a change of clothes, and they work as hard as they do simply to
survive.  These are the people who suffer the most from pesticide exposure.

And the quality of their life would be even lower if they were not given a job.  Poor, and no opportunity to provide for themselves.

My siblings worked detasseling corn for seed growers back when I was a little kid.  They were grateful to earn the money, and they worked long hours too.

If we had an unregulated economy, kids would have other opportunities to earn money in less demanding jobs.  Eventually, hard farm labor would have to pay more, simply to attract workers.  Either that, or the farm would go out of business.

Do beekeepers try to get the cheapest labor they can hire?  Of course not.  They try to get QUALITY laborers, and we know that quality costs money.  We want value - just the same as the big farms want value.  People sometimes get emotional and forget that jobs children do are often low value jobs, which is why the pay is so low.

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