Child Labor

Nike recently restarted procuring soccer balls from Pakistan. They had stopped this practice six months ago, because of concerns about child labor. Nike now has a new supplier, who has commited to not use child labor.

It is easy to criticize child labor as a reprehensible practice. And, that criticism is abundant in the US. In fact, there are frequent initiatives to ban things that are found to have child labor. But which country has a bigger child labor problem, and what are people accomplishing by boycotting goods that have child labor?

In US there are plenty of children who work to make money. Why is that not child labor? Is that because these people are earning money that will be spent on stuff that large corporations provide (Nike shoes, for example). In third-world countries, children work to feed themselves and their families.

By criticizing only the third-world child labor, we are in effect saying that it is OK to have child labor if the money is spent on luxuries. But, if the child is working to earn food - that is a horrible thing to do, and must be stopped. What is a hungry child to do?