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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] child labor

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  • From: "Del Williams" <delannw AT dlogue.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] child labor
  • Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 16:37:09 -0600

Well, Leigh, you have seen the carnage.

If it were a legitimate employer there would be one hell of a price to pay.

See, that's the thing. If children are actually being used as labor to
produce income, then why in the hell aren't they paid directly? Why do they
have no say in how the fruits of their labor are used? Because it's a
family business?

Under whose social security number is the income reported? Not those
children. Why do they not have a legal and legitimate right to have the
value of their work attributed to themselves?

Because they aren't viewed as legitimate persons who have a right to say
much of anything. They just follow instructions.

My daughter worked for my stand for two seasons. I paid her directly an
hourly wage. Just as I paid any of the occasional help I had. She had a
legitimate right to consider that her work had a direct monetary value and
that those funds could be used at her discretion. She certainly had other
options for earning money.

She has also worked for her dad at a professional nursery for several
summers. She is paid the going wage, she gets her tax docs like everyone
else and she has the right to decide how to spend those wages.

Working on the farm isn't like taking out the garbage and dusting the
furniture. Work is work and I think children ought to be paid directly for
it. Business is business and home is home.

That might be hard to separate on a farm but it is doable.

Del Williams
Farmer in the Del
Clifton IL






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