Child Labour - A Necessary Evil

Third world nations are stuck. They're usually small, ethnically diverse, sometimes landlocked or plagued by tropical diseases. The ultimate factor to their terrible situation is their poverty. Some countries are poor for a lot of reasons but there's success stories such as Japan, South Korea, Malaysia etc. A factor in their success is child labour.

I know, it sounds terrible doesn't it? But look at the course of history. Child workers are a necessary must in young nations who're on the way to industrializing such as 19th Century Britain and America, 20th century Brazil and most African nations in the 21st century if they're jobs aren't outsourced to China. Education is highly important of course, but to the average Afghan or Burmese peasant..working the fields is a more important use of time. Especially if you're dirt poor and you're government wants you to pay for primary education. Perhaps the farm is use more useful to you in the long-run. Especially considering that most elites have a better chance if you're government is grossly corrupt than you do. Let's say you live in a somewhat urban nation though, like 19th century Britain. Boy, are you in for a shock.

It's much cheaper to use a small child than to a higher a fully grown man. Especially if the job would require a very small man to do it like entering coal shafts or doing something with textiles in a factory. Cheap workers are especially needed if the country you're selling goods to has high tarriffs or worse - free trade which swamps your country with products made by Mexican labourers in California and the same thing applied to 19th Century Britain which is why Charles Dickens so good at writing about the social conditions of children...which he suffered through when he was a mere lad. Child labour helped his family income and probably contributed to them not starving. He was a lucky one.

Let's say in Senegal, what's the point of going to school to the age of 14 when you were just going to be a fisherman anyways. Might as well start young while you still can right? Not saying education is useless, it's just useless if you can't do shit with it afterwards right? Especially in Africa. Then again, what caused child labour to end in the US and Europe? Industralization, legislation and societal shift which caused parents to think their children aren't a means to end but innocent little creatures and the education of children along with the introduction of tiny little machines to eliminate the need of tiny little hands help but so does education as well such as in South Korea but i'm sure South Korea HAD to have child labour for awhile, demography demands it and demography is a cold hard bitch.

Arguing for this is terrible. I know, awful. Abysmal, it's like supporting slavery before industralization because SOMEONE had to do the work and it wasn't going to be landed Virginian gentry that's for sure. I'm glad that self-respect for individuals has come a long way from 1830 but in countries like Afghanistan and Ethiopia, it has to be put aside to allow for daily survival. If Western Nations wanted to help prevent this from occuring, getting rid of protective tarriffs which cause nations to look for the cheapest workers available (ie children) to work for a living instead of learning how to understand English or do simple arithmatic but no. The workers/farmers in rich western states whose corporations have a bigger yearly revenue than Ghana MUST be protected. Until Western Nations allow other nations to compete fairly, child labour is a must. What a sick, sad world.