Medicating children

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 08:13 AM 5/25/01 -0400, Yoshie wrote:
>In contrast, in pre-industrial societies, even the very young (if 
>they survived the period of infancy) worked & therefore had social 
>roles that went with work, as they still do in many poor nations.
>
>In other words, childhood & adolescence are erstwhile luxury goods 
>that have become cheaper through mass production, though they are 
>still too pricey for all the young people in the world to enjoy.

Not bad for a lit-crit critter, Yoshie :)

But more seriously, this is an excellent point.  I wonder to what extent
the well-intended wussy liberal concern over child welfare that led to the
child labor laws dove-tails the capitalist scheme of degrading the value
and quality of work.  

A case in point.  As the Amish have been moving away from agriculture to
crafts and small manufacturing, PA businesses cry "child exploitation" and
"unfair competition" on the Amish practice of youth 12 years old working in
their family owned shops.  In other words, a 12-year idler wasting his time
at a mall, arcade parlor, watching tv or playing video games, and then
flipping burgers at MacGrease when he reaches 16 is good; but a 12-year old
learning a useful trade and the virtues of work is bad.  Can it sink any
lower than that?

I'm wondering to what extent the law-mandated youth idleness and the
schooling system that by design has nothing to do with work contributed to
economic conservatism and anti-labor views of the baby-boom and post-baby
boom generations in this country and Europe.

wojtek