Re:I got hired at a Bangladesh sweatshop. Meet my 9-year-old...
by Someone on Saturday October 12, 2013 @12:52PM
(#6539338)
The knee jerk reaction should be "make them pay slightly more, and introduce/enforce child labor laws".
Part of the problem is that these kids do not need to work; if you look at unemployment levels, it is not like Bangladesh is so poor that kids have to work. According to the CIA world Facebook (iOS spelling correction strikes again): "about 40% of the population is underemployed; many participants in the labor force work only a few hours a week, at low wages" (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...)
Poor grown-ups could do this work, but factories do not want to employ them because they work slower (possibly because they are somewhat disabled after years working as kids; at 80 hours a week without holidays, these kids will have worked more hours by the time they are 25 than a blue collar worker in the rich parts of the world does in his career) and because they are harder to control (and that would get harder once a generation sends its kids to school)
Also, it is not like Bangladesh is full of opportunities for educated people. Whatever you do, it remains a very densely populated river delta with few natural resources (they have oil and gas, but are net importers already).
Part of the problem is that these kids do not need to work; if you look at unemployment levels, it is not like Bangladesh is so poor that kids have to work. According to the CIA world Facebook (iOS spelling correction strikes again): "about 40% of the population is underemployed; many participants in the labor force work only a few hours a week, at low wages" (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...)
Poor grown-ups could do this work, but factories do not want to employ them because they work slower (possibly because they are somewhat disabled after years working as kids; at 80 hours a week without holidays, these kids will have worked more hours by the time they are 25 than a blue collar worker in the rich parts of the world does in his career) and because they are harder to control (and that would get harder once a generation sends its kids to school)
Also, it is not like Bangladesh is full of opportunities for educated people. Whatever you do, it remains a very densely populated river delta with few natural resources (they have oil and gas, but are net importers already).