It’s appalling that this is even a question. Children don’t need better terms for working at the abattoir, the garbage dump or the sawmill; they need not to be working in those places.
The need for capital to find ever cheaper labor to exploit, accelerated by Republicans. I was trying to avoid loaded terms like “civilized” and “third world”, but it does not make the USA look good at all.
They should allow children to work to get money, if that is the only way to get money. Of course, it would be preferable that no one has to work to survive. Or do you think the government should provide free money only to children?
I think a guaranteed basic income for young people only would certainly make up for keeping them from working. Like you said, nobody having to work to live would be the ideal, but to ban people from being able to support themselves and doing nothing to make up the difference creates artificial dependence that keeps people in abusive situations with no recourse.
That it’s still third world shit perpetuates our tolerance of it at all. Our manufacturing industries shouldn’t br able to move factories offshore to developing countries where they can hire workers for pennies.