WEBVTT NOTE 32. The Employer of Child Labor 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Chapter 32. The Employer of Child Labor. 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:14.000 High on the list of the enemies of society, one can always find the employer of child labor. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Cruel, cold-hearted, exploitative, cunning and evil. 4 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.000 In the public mind, child labor is almost equivalent to slave labor, 5 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.000 and the children's employer is no better than the slave owner. 6 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:38.000 It is important to correct this view. Simple justice demands it, for the majority opinion on this question is completely fallacious. 7 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:48.000 The archetypical child labor employer is as kindly, benevolent and filled with the milk of human kindness as anyone else. 8 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:56.000 Moreover, the institution of child labor is an honorable one with a long and glorious history of good works. 9 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:04.000 and the villains of the piece are not the employers, but rather those who prohibit the free market in child labor. 10 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:12.000 These do-gooders are responsible for the untold immiseration of those who are thus forced out of employment. 11 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Although the harm done was greater in the past when great poverty made widespread child labor necessary, 12 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.000 there are still people in dire straits today. 13 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:30.000 The present prohibitions of child labor are thus an unconscionable interference with their lives. 14 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:39.000 The first plank in the defense is that the employer of child labor has not forced anyone to join his employ. 15 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.000 Any and all labor agreements are completely voluntary. 16 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:49.000 As such, unless they were thought to be mutually beneficial, they would not be agreed to. 17 00:01:49.000 --> 00:02:02.000 But in what sense can a labor contract with a child be completely voluntary? Does not complete volunteerism imply an awareness that a child is not capable of? 18 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:10.000 To answer this question, consideration should be given to a proper definition of what a child is. 19 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:15.000 This is an ancient question, which has never been fully resolved. 20 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:20.320 Nevertheless, we shall consider several ages which have been suggested as dividing the 21 00:02:20.320 --> 00:02:26.760 child from the adult, analyze them, and then offer an alternative. 22 00:02:26.760 --> 00:02:32.120 Among the earliest ages for the cut-off point between childhood and adulthood are those 23 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:35.280 proposed by the various religions. 24 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:40.800 The age of confirmation into the religion, which usually occurs in the very early teens 25 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:46.760 is the age at which many religions define adulthood. 26 00:02:46.760 --> 00:02:54.560 But the person, child, at, for example, age 13, also is, except in rare instances, still 27 00:02:54.560 --> 00:03:01.580 immature, relatively helpless, and ignorant of the skills necessary to care for himself. 28 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:04.640 So it must be rejected. 29 00:03:04.640 --> 00:03:09.000 The next candidate for adulthood is age 18. 30 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:26.640 We may start off by questioning whether or not fighting in wars is an adult action. 31 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:32.660 All too often, going to war is virtually the opposite of behavior usually indicative of 32 00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:33.660 adulthood. 33 00:03:33.660 --> 00:03:40.660 Also, merely following orders, the be-all and end-all of the enlisted soldier, cannot 34 00:03:40.660 --> 00:03:43.700 be considered an adult paradigm. 35 00:03:43.700 --> 00:03:49.220 In addition, there is the problem that the draft, an involuntary institution if ever 36 00:03:49.220 --> 00:03:55.460 there was one, serves as the very basis for the order-taking that follows. 37 00:03:55.460 --> 00:04:01.360 At least if the original decision to obey orders was made on a voluntary basis, such 38 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:07.360 Such as the decision to join an orchestra, and then to follow all musical orders of the 39 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:12.960 conductor, there might be some adult-like behavior involved in the draft. 40 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:20.960 However, based as it is on original involuntarism, even so much cannot be said for the 18-year-old 41 00:04:20.960 --> 00:04:23.580 draftable age. 42 00:04:23.580 --> 00:04:29.520 Another problem with the 18-year cut-off point is that the original reason for our search 43 00:04:29.520 --> 00:04:36.520 was the fear that a mere child would be unable to make voluntary contracts on his own. 44 00:04:36.520 --> 00:04:45.080 How then can we base such an age on a patently involuntary institution such as the draft? 45 00:04:45.080 --> 00:04:50.920 Perhaps the latest candidate for adulthood is the voting age, 21 years old. 46 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:54.600 But even this is open to harsh criticism. 47 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:59.600 There is, first, the problem that several, if not many, ten-year-olds have a greater 48 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:07.100 grasp of political, social, historical, psychological and economic factors, presumably the factors 49 00:05:07.100 --> 00:05:13.820 that enable one to vote wisely than do many people over the age of 21. 50 00:05:13.820 --> 00:05:18.660 One would then think that if this were true, there would be some recognition of the fact 51 00:05:18.660 --> 00:05:24.980 in the form of a movement to enfranchise all bright 10-year-olds, or rather, all bright 52 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:27.460 children of any age. 53 00:05:27.460 --> 00:05:33.320 But this would defeat the original goal of allowing only adults to vote. 54 00:05:33.320 --> 00:05:39.300 Through this circularity of reasoning, we can see that the age of 21 is only an arbitrary 55 00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:41.660 cut-off point. 56 00:05:41.660 --> 00:05:48.160 We can likewise see all other arbitrary definitions of adulthood to be without merit. 57 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:54.100 What is needed is not an arbitrary age limit which will apply to all people regardless 58 00:05:54.100 --> 00:06:00.880 of ability, temperament and behavior, but rather a criteria which can take all these 59 00:06:00.880 --> 00:06:03.000 qualities into account. 60 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:09.380 Moreover, the criteria should be consistent with the libertarian principle of self-ownership 61 00:06:09.380 --> 00:06:13.340 of property, namely homesteading. 62 00:06:13.340 --> 00:06:19.640 What is wanted is an application of the principle of homesteading, which establishes self-ownership 63 00:06:19.640 --> 00:06:26.140 and ownership of property, but applied now to the perplexing problem of when a child 64 00:06:26.140 --> 00:06:28.540 becomes an adult. 65 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:34.020 Such a theory has been put forth by Professor Murray N. Rothbard. 66 00:06:34.020 --> 00:06:39.580 According to Rothbard, a child becomes an adult not when he reaches some arbitrary age 67 00:06:39.580 --> 00:06:46.060 Age Limit, but rather when he does something to establish his ownership and control over 68 00:06:46.060 --> 00:06:53.500 his own person, namely when he leaves home and becomes able to support himself. 69 00:06:53.500 --> 00:07:00.760 This criteria, and only this criteria, is free of all the objections to arbitrary age 70 00:07:00.760 --> 00:07:01.760 limits. 71 00:07:01.760 --> 00:07:07.620 Moreover, not only is it consistent with the libertarian homesteading theory, it is but 72 00:07:07.620 --> 00:07:27.240 The Theory has several implications. 73 00:07:27.240 --> 00:07:33.280 If the only way a child may become an adult is by picking himself up and establishing 74 00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:24.200 It should be noted that this theory of the passage from childhood to adulthood is the 75 00:08:24.200 --> 00:08:29.440 only one consistent with the problem of mental deficiency. 76 00:08:29.440 --> 00:08:35.960 According to the specific arbitrary theories of adulthood, a mental incompetent aged 50 77 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:41.400 ought to be considered an adult, even though he manifestly is not. 78 00:08:41.400 --> 00:08:48.440 These theories then come up with further arbitrary ad hoc exceptions to fit the case. 79 00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:53.540 But the mental incompetent is no embarrassment to the homesteading theory. 80 00:08:53.540 --> 00:09:00.060 Since he has not been able to seize ownership and adulthood of and for himself, the mental 81 00:09:00.060 --> 00:09:05.240 incompetent of whatever age is simply not an adult. 82 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:10.880 The most important implication of the homesteading theory of adulthood is, of course, the one 83 00:09:10.880 --> 00:09:17.500 regarding the prohibition of so-called child labor, where a child is defined as someone 84 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:22.140 with less than a certain arbitrary number of years. 85 00:09:22.140 --> 00:09:28.260 For this prohibition of so-called child labor, as in the case of parental interference with 86 00:09:28.260 --> 00:09:35.540 the child's decision to leave home, will effectively remove the possibility of voluntarily becoming 87 00:09:35.540 --> 00:09:37.340 an adult. 88 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:43.300 If a person of tender years is effectively prohibited from working, the option to leave 89 00:09:43.300 --> 00:09:47.540 home and to support himself is removed from him. 90 00:09:47.540 --> 00:09:54.260 He is then excluded from homesteading his own adulthood and must perforce wait until the 91 00:09:54.260 --> 00:09:59.620 arbitrary number of years defining adulthood has been reached. 92 00:09:59.620 --> 00:10:06.300 However, the adult homesteading theory does not require employers to hire young persons 93 00:10:06.300 --> 00:10:09.560 who are trying to establish their adulthood. 94 00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:16.700 It is of course true that unless some employer hires such a person, he will find it as difficult 95 00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:22.820 to Become an Adult as in the case where his parents forbade his departure, or the government 96 00:10:22.820 --> 00:10:24.700 prohibited it. 97 00:10:24.700 --> 00:10:31.620 But the key difference is that the voluntaristic nature of the passage from childhood to adulthood 98 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:38.400 will not be infringed upon by employers refusing to hire young people. 99 00:10:38.400 --> 00:10:45.820 This is so because true voluntarism requires voluntary action on the part of both parties 100 00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:47.820 to an Agreement. 101 00:10:47.820 --> 00:10:52.980 The employer as well as the employee must agree. 102 00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:59.440 In any case, since there can be no positive obligations unless the individual himself 103 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:06.360 contracts for them, and the employer has made no advance commitment to employ the youngster, 104 00:11:06.360 --> 00:11:11.540 there is no moral obligation on the part of the employer. 105 00:11:11.540 --> 00:11:16.500 Teachers will, of course, employ young people when they feel it is to their advantage to 106 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:22.540 do so, as they have always done when not prohibited by law. 107 00:11:22.540 --> 00:11:27.980 Not only is it important to end prohibitions of employment of children for the sake of 108 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:35.080 their peaceful and voluntaristic transition into adulthood, it is also of overriding importance 109 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:39.740 to the small but growing kid liberation movement. 110 00:11:39.740 --> 00:11:45.060 The prohibition against job opportunities will have to be ended if children are to be 111 00:11:45.060 --> 00:11:51.380 truly liberated from their parents while in residence in the parental abode. 112 00:11:51.380 --> 00:11:57.920 Of what value is the right to leave the family household and seek a living outside if a youngster 113 00:11:57.920 --> 00:12:01.360 is prohibited from supporting himself? 114 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:08.420 The right of every kid to fire his parents if they become too onerous is completely compromised 115 00:12:08.420 --> 00:12:12.620 by the Laws Against Child Labor. 116 00:12:12.620 --> 00:12:19.440 Can a labor contract with a mere child be truly voluntary, given his tender years, lack 117 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:21.740 of experience, etc.? 118 00:12:21.740 --> 00:12:23.540 The answer is yes. 119 00:12:23.540 --> 00:12:29.900 A person, any person who has had the ability to leave home and to attempt to earn his own 120 00:12:29.900 --> 00:12:37.280 living is mature enough to enter into a contract on a voluntary basis, since such a person 121 00:12:37.280 --> 00:12:39.980 Man is a child no longer. 122 00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:45.260 The opposite answer, as we have seen, would effectively bar young people from striking 123 00:12:45.260 --> 00:12:50.100 out on their own and becoming adults through homesteading. 124 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:55.580 Their only alternative would be to wait until they have reached whatever arbitrary number 125 00:12:55.580 --> 00:13:03.480 of years society in its infinite wisdom has determined to be necessary for adulthood. 126 00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:08.400 There are other objections, however, to the legalization of child labor. 127 00:13:08.400 --> 00:13:13.600 It will be said that a destitute youngster, even though an adult through homesteading, 128 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:19.560 will be taken advantage of by employers, that the employer will make profit from the plight 129 00:13:19.560 --> 00:13:23.480 the youngster happens to find himself in. 130 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:30.320 But it would be far more harmful if his one source of support, however bleak, were legislated 131 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:32.800 out of existence. 132 00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:39.020 Despite the fact that the employer might be cruel, the job menial and the salary low, 133 00:13:39.020 --> 00:13:44.300 it would be far more injurious to forbid him the opportunity. 134 00:13:44.300 --> 00:13:50.820 If there are other, more favorable alternatives, the young person will avail himself of them, 135 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:57.680 even if the law allows the choice of accepting or rejecting the unfavorable job. 136 00:13:57.680 --> 00:14:03.880 If there are no other opportunities, the laws prohibiting child labor will take from him 137 00:14:03.880 --> 00:14:09.040 this one opportunity, however unfavorable. 138 00:14:09.040 --> 00:14:14.580 In a free market society, the employer will not be able to take advantage of the misery 139 00:14:14.580 --> 00:14:20.720 of the young worker, if by this it is meant that he will not be able to pay him less than 140 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:23.120 his marginal product. 141 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:29.280 As we have seen in the chapter on the capitalist pig employer, there exist powerful forces 142 00:14:29.280 --> 00:14:35.760 on an open market which will tend to force all wages up toward the level of productivity 143 00:14:35.760 --> 00:14:38.680 of the worker in question. 144 00:14:38.680 --> 00:14:44.360 However destitute and helpless the youngster who is looking for work may be, it is not 145 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:47.800 the fault of the potential employer. 146 00:14:47.800 --> 00:14:53.600 Even if the destitution and lack of bargaining power of the worker were very extreme, and 147 00:14:53.600 --> 00:15:00.140 even if the employer were able to take advantage of this, as we have seen is not the case, 148 00:15:00.140 --> 00:15:04.100 it would still not be the fault of the employer. 149 00:15:04.100 --> 00:15:09.240 If anything, the unfortunate situation would have to be blamed on the background of the 150 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:11.400 ex-child. 151 00:15:11.400 --> 00:15:17.920 The question arises as to what degree the parent is obligated to support the child. 152 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:23.920 As a general principle, the parent has no positive obligations whatsoever in regard 153 00:15:23.920 --> 00:15:25.700 to the child. 154 00:15:25.700 --> 00:15:31.240 The argument to the contrary, that a parent does have some positive obligations toward 155 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:38.080 the child, based upon the supposed contractual nature or voluntary decision on the part of 156 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:50.720 1. All children are equal in rights due them from their parents, regardless of the way 157 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:57.840 in which they were conceived. 2. Specifically, the child who is a product of rape has as 158 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:04.520 many obligations due him from his female parent as any other child. We assume that the male 159 00:16:04.520 --> 00:16:07.860 Well parent, the rapist, has gone. 160 00:16:07.860 --> 00:16:13.700 No matter what views we have on rape, the child who is a product of such rape is entirely 161 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:17.760 guiltless of this crime or any other crime. 162 00:16:17.760 --> 00:16:19.400 3. 163 00:16:19.400 --> 00:16:26.240 The voluntary nature of child-rearing and conception does not apply in the case of rape. 164 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:27.240 4. 165 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:33.060 Therefore, the argument that the parent owes some obligations to the child, which arise 166 00:16:33.060 --> 00:16:40.100 is out of the voluntary nature of the conception, or out of an implicit contract, cannot apply 167 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:42.300 in the case of rape. 168 00:16:42.300 --> 00:16:48.240 That is, in the case of rape at least, the female parent owes no positive obligation 169 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:53.060 to the child because she did not consent to its inception. 170 00:16:53.060 --> 00:16:59.580 Five, all children being equally guiltless of any crime in spite of any theory to the 171 00:16:59.580 --> 00:17:06.420 and the contrary, such as original sin, have equal rights due them from their parents. 172 00:17:06.420 --> 00:17:12.100 Since all such rights supposedly flow from the voluntary nature of conception, and the 173 00:17:12.100 --> 00:17:19.540 children born of rape manifestly lack this voluntary aspect, they at least have no rights 174 00:17:19.540 --> 00:17:22.340 due them from their female parent. 175 00:17:22.340 --> 00:17:26.580 But their rights are equal to those of all other children. 176 00:17:26.580 --> 00:17:35.580 Therefore, no child whosoever has any positive obligations due him from his parents. 177 00:17:35.580 --> 00:17:41.940 Nor is it immediately or intuitively obvious that there are any other grounds for establishing 178 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:45.460 any parental duties to children. 179 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:51.180 Given then that nothing but a voluntary agreement on the part of the parent could establish 180 00:17:51.180 --> 00:17:56.900 No positive obligations to children, and that this argument fails, it is obvious that there 181 00:17:56.900 --> 00:18:03.260 are no positive obligations incumbent upon parents toward their children. 182 00:18:03.260 --> 00:18:10.220 No positive obligations implies that the parent has no more of an obligation to feed, clothe 183 00:18:10.220 --> 00:18:16.260 and shelter his own child than he has to serve the children of other people, or for that 184 00:18:16.260 --> 00:18:22.740 matter than to serve other adults who are completely unrelated to him by birth, agreement, 185 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:24.060 etc. 186 00:18:24.060 --> 00:18:29.140 This is not to suggest, however, that the parent may kill the child. 187 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:34.300 Just as the parent has no right to kill the children of other parents, he has no right 188 00:18:34.300 --> 00:18:40.180 to kill his own children, or rather children he has given birth to. 189 00:18:40.180 --> 00:18:47.280 The parent, when he assumes the role of parenthood, is a sort of caretaker for the child. 190 00:18:47.280 --> 00:18:54.020 If ever the parent wishes to relinquish this role that he or she has voluntarily adopted, 191 00:18:54.020 --> 00:19:00.220 or not assume this obligation in the first place, she is completely free to do so. 192 00:19:00.220 --> 00:19:05.780 She can offer the baby for adoption, or, in the old tradition of the natural law, leave 193 00:19:05.780 --> 00:19:10.740 Leave the baby on the steps of a church or charitable institution specializing in the 194 00:19:10.740 --> 00:19:13.040 care of children. 195 00:19:13.040 --> 00:19:18.940 But the parent may not secret the baby in a hidden corner of the house without food, 196 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:23.860 or refuse to offer it for adoption and wait for it to die. 197 00:19:23.860 --> 00:19:31.060 To do this would be equivalent to murder, a crime which must always be severely condemned. 198 00:19:31.060 --> 00:19:37.200 The parent who keeps the child hidden while starving it so as not to actually commit violent 199 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:43.780 murder upon it has renounced his caretakership or the parental relationship others might 200 00:19:43.780 --> 00:19:46.160 be willing to assume. 201 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:52.120 Perhaps the parental caretaker role may be made clearer by entering it into a hierarchy 202 00:19:52.120 --> 00:19:54.140 of homesteading. 203 00:19:54.140 --> 00:20:00.560 The child falls into a realm between that of another adult and that of an animal. 204 00:20:00.560 --> 00:20:06.700 If one adult helps another, he cannot, by that help alone, come to be the owner of the 205 00:20:06.700 --> 00:20:08.520 other person. 206 00:20:08.520 --> 00:20:14.760 If an adult domesticates an animal and, through his own efforts, brings the animal into productive 207 00:20:14.760 --> 00:20:21.160 use, productive for mankind, he can thereby come to own it. 208 00:20:21.160 --> 00:20:28.020 The child, an intermediate case, can be owned through homesteading, but only on a caretaker 209 00:20:58.020 --> 00:21:02.780 for example, be an absentee landlord or animal owner. 210 00:21:02.780 --> 00:21:08.700 If he discontinues his homesteading operations with the child, he must then either offer 211 00:21:08.700 --> 00:21:15.100 it for adoption if it is too young and helpless to fend for itself, or he must allow it to 212 00:21:15.100 --> 00:21:20.600 run away to set up its own life if it is able and willing. 213 00:21:20.600 --> 00:21:26.860 If the parent brought up the child with just enough help and aid to qualify as a continuance 214 00:21:26.860 --> 00:21:29.740 of Homesteading, but no more. 215 00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:35.580 And if the child is in a relatively deprived background, this cannot be laid at the door 216 00:21:35.580 --> 00:21:38.460 of the prospective employer. 217 00:21:38.460 --> 00:21:45.540 Prohibiting an employer from hiring such a youngster will in no way improve his lot. 218 00:21:45.540 --> 00:21:47.940 It can only worsen it. 219 00:21:47.940 --> 00:21:55.080 True, there are parents who make unwise decisions concerning children, unwise from the vantage 220 00:21:55.080 --> 00:22:02.080 The State, too, makes unwise and even unhealthy decisions concerning children, and a child can much more easily leave his parent than leave his government, which rules us all. 221 00:22:02.080 --> 00:22:05.080 It does not follow, however, that the welfare of children will be raised by placing them in the hands of the State apparatus. 222 00:22:05.080 --> 00:22:19.080 The State, too, makes unwise and even unhealthy decisions concerning children, and a child can much more easily leave his parent than leave his government, which rules us all. 223 00:22:19.080 --> 00:22:31.080 We must conclude then that all labor contracts concerning young people are valid as long as they are voluntary, and they can be voluntary. 224 00:22:31.080 --> 00:22:40.080 Either the young person is an adult, whatever his age, who has earned his adulthood and hence is able to consent to contracts, 225 00:22:40.080 --> 00:22:49.080 Or else, he is still a child and is able to work on a voluntary basis through the intermediation of parental consent.