Child Labor: A Global Problem

Child labor and acts of indecency to people of all age are rampant in impoverished countries. While the majority of people seem to live a comfortable and peaceful life in the United States, poverty, unemployment, and misuse of children and human life in general still exists in the very country we live in. Doing nothing to stop child labor means that you are ignoring what might be the key point in our growth as a race. With nearly half of the world living off less than two dollars a day, how can we not have a feeling rooted deep in our conscience that we need to do something to stop this?

A child should never choose work over school, in any circumstance. Unfortunately, the majority of child laborers are either forced into their position by a higher power, or forced to work due to lack of money or some sort of a debt. If a child were to work, it should only be a couple hours a day, so as to not deter them from studying. A nation of uneducated people is a nation that won't grow. If children are the future, making them work instead of go to school means that one more generation of human beings will be undereducated and under qualified for any significant job. The main reason that child labor needs to be halted is that it slows down the progress of any nation with these child laborers.

Let's not forget the moral abomination that is child labor. If we as a nation believe in freedom, shouldn't we do everything in our power to allow this freedom to our natives? With such an array of child labor laws and regulations, child labor still exists in our society right in our very own country. The notion of people that wish to help overseas child laborers is that "how can one human life be worth more than another?" However, doesn't this notion go both ways? How can we be so focused on overseas fixes to the problem when the problems are rampant in our own home?

Fixes to the problem of child labor must encompass and consider every aspect of society, including the economy. If we actively try to cure the entire problem of child labor instantly, we will most likely hurt our economy as a whole, leaving many Americans out of jobs and with a low standard of living. The problem needs to be both short-term and long-term, as child labor only seems to grow. The ideal cure to such a problem would be educating the children and allowing them to build their economy by themselves. The Acirfa program helped the starved economy by giving discount quality bikes to natives of many African countries. "Microloans" were also given, allocating just enough money for them to start their business. Handouts are bad for the problem of child labor as this only perpetuates their lifestyle. Economies that don't build themselves cannot be built by the help of others. The cure for the problem of child labor lies on these two main points; to put children in school, and to give "microloans" for business that need them.

But where does this money come from? Where do we get the money to both give loans to the people that need they and put the children in school? A viable solution would be to take a certain % out of certain assets that are booming. The auto industry is one that cannot take even a 1% tax raise to help out child labor. We need an industry that is evergreen; meaning it will always exist and will always be huge. Our electricity revenue in the United States is said to be over 35 million dollars a year. Adding a 1% tax to our electricity revenue nets $350,000 dollars that can go towards curing child labor. In societies where the majority of the people live on less than 50 cents a day, $350,000 can go an enormous way towards putting the children in schools and allocating "microloans" to the people that need them. The electricity industry has grown every single year since 1986. Our nation's recession has seemed to not strongly affect the industry of electricity, so a 1% tax would not be such a big deal. It's been said that any time taxes are raised on big business, the economy suffers. This is most likely due to taxes being raised on industries that aren't growing or are even subsiding. Taxes on an industry that continues to grow should not have a strong negative effect on the economy.

The problem most be solved on both sides. If we only fix the lack of education of these child laborers, once they graduate with educations there will be no jobs available. If we only focus on putting money into businesses that need it, they won't have any options for who the employ. The money must be put into both ends of the problem for the problem to deteriorate. Any notion we have about us fixing the problem of child labor hurting our lifestyle in our country is simply ludicrous. A small 1% tax on a growing industry has the ability to change the lives of thousands of children who never got the opportunities in life that they deserved.

We can put this plan into action by bringing this idea to congress. The bureau of energy and labor, as well as our foreign relations committee would all need to be involved in an idea such as this. We must get the cooperation of every one of these groups as well as many more groups in order to get this idea into action. It's time to get up off your butts and do you part to stop child labor and mistreatment of human life.

Bibliography

John Stockl

Electricity and Energy

www.Epri.com

Anup Shah

Causes of Poverty

http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty

Anup Shah

Trade, Economy, Related Issues

http://www.globalissues.org/issue/1/trade-economy-related-issues