Just because the child labor isn’t happening on our soil, isn’t it still valid to say a lot of our supply chains are supported by it?
Chocolate, coffee, clothing, rare minerals from electronics, electronic assembly all have slavery and child labor issues globally. I don’t think the US and other wealthy countries are absolved of that horror just because we outlawed child labor for our own citizens but allow (and incentivize!) it when it’s outsourced.
I know it's not Bangladesh, but in nearby India, the state of Kerala is the one most influenced by communists, and is also the one with the highest standard of living in the country. Meanwhile there are countless countries that have followed neoliberal models and have terrible quality of life.
In 1950, India had a GDP per capita of $597. China was only a little higher at $614. Pakistan was at $650. Taiwan and South Korea were $922 and $876--significantly less than twice as much. Fast forward to 2023, India has increased by less than 5x, and is at $2,600. China has grown 20x, and is at $12,000. South Korea has grown 40x and is at $35,000. Taiwan grew 35x and is at $34,700.
The defense of Nehruvian economics--against all evidence and experience--would be funny if the consequences weren't so deadly. It, and the neighboring ideologies of Islamic Socialism in Pakistan and Bangladesh, left those countries far behind Asian competitors that didn't have that much of a head start at the time of independence. Pointing to the least bad implementation of that tragic idea isn't impressive to me.
When there have been dozens of experiments at the country level and at the province level with communism, and you mention only one experiment that supports your position, that is called cherry picking.
What do you expect -- for me to catalog and rate every country by economic development and political influence? This comment applies just as well to the post I was replying to, which happened to refer to a country immediately adjacent to the one I referenced.
> Capitalist societies are one of the few places where children don't work.
This is simply not true. Essentially every capitalist country has had extensive child labor for long periods in their capitalist development. There was widespread child labor in the early 1900s U.S. - a very capitalist economy then and now. Many developing countries with capitalist economies (such as Ivory Coast and Ghana - you know, the ones in the article) also have extensive child labor today.
None of them - capitalist or not, they all had it at that time, and many continue to have it to this day as seen with Ghana and the Ivory Coast. So capitalism doesn’t end child labor, which is my point. It can even expand it or worsen conditions where doing so is profitable.
All of these countries, like everywhere else, started with with child labor. The difference is that the countries who no longer need it are almost universally capitalist.
That’s true, but it supports my point not yours. In 1950, Pakistan and China both had a GDP per capita around $600. Today, China is probably within a generation of becoming a developed country and eliminating child labor. Pakistan is nowhere close.
Of course capitalism doesn’t eliminate child labor overnight. Villages in Pakistan and to a lesser extent China would starve to death if you eliminated child labor overnight. But capitalism is the only system that has proven capable of nearly eliminating it from a society over time.
Especially necessary for those who, for many centuries, have not been well-paid by the capitalists who took advantage of their situation. Sometimes called exploitation. A practice often maintained by keeping native governments de-stabilized. (See e.g. history of the Caribbean. Or Hawaii.)
Ah, yes, blame the failures of socialism on “exploitation” by foreigners instead of your ideology. Losers. Losers who condemn their countries to poverty because they can’t admit they’re wrong.
