Conservatism thrives on whataboutism. As long as they can point at something than is "worse" than the current system, they can excuse the current system existing and claim it is the only possible good thing

That's not Conservatism, that's apathy. On a global level, the % of illegal child labor occurring within the reach of US prosecutors is minuscule.

When you do see it in the US, it's tied to some other illegal activity.

I'm going to guess that none of these children have parents that are either legal or present, or possibly both. There was a similar story about migrant children working in auto component factories in the South that made parts for Hyundai/Kia.

...and the higher-ups do usually escape in these things. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postville_raid

It's not excusable. It's horrible but no more horrible than the rest of the child exploitation globally to make the stuff we want which is not possible without....child labor. It is a simple fact of the matter. Point fingers but my stuff and your stuff is made with child labor. No way around it. It is the way the world works. Break it and the stuff starts getting really really expensive. I'm ok with that but only because I have the the coin to pay for it. Not the case for everyone else. They want the stuff. And cheap. Solution? Nobody has one.

what solution do you propose? Yes, nature is brutal, but I believe we shouldn't lose our ethics even if we can't do meaningful in some areas.

> It's horrible but no more horrible than the rest of the child exploitation globally to make the stuff we want which is not possible without....child labor.

It is most certainly possible without child labor. It's not like adult labor in the DRC is particularly expensive. The per capita value of all the cobalt America uses per year is less than $1. If it were lying on the sidewalk, you probably wouldn't bother to bend over to pick up the amount of money you save by having child labor in those mines. The idea that we need child labor is asinine.