Depends David.
Kids can be either a debit entry or a credit entry.
I hold the opinion that we should improve their education by sending them to work just about as soon as they can walk, just make sure they make more money than it costs to feed them.
Of course, if you're a farmer your kids just naturally start work as soon as they can get around without a nappy.
I probably didn't start young enough, but by age 8 I was going on to building jobs with my Dad and getting morning teas, and lunches, and sweeping up and fetching tools. It was very educational. It taught me that I never, ever wanted to earn my living as a tradesman.
Then there is the example of my barber. He was born in Italy. The system in the town where he was born was that kids went to school in the morning, and as soon as they were judged to be sufficiently mature, usually about 8 years of age, they were expected to find somebody in the town to teach them a trade. He started work with a barber. He was a fully trained barber at age 14.
This whole thing that is now current in many places about child labour being evil is totally, totally incorrect. It displays abysmal ignorance of any world other than the one in which people who do not know insufficiency live.
In places like Indonesia, India, and other developing countries the contribution of the children to the family income is essential.
It continues past prepubescent childhood too. In most working class Indonesian families one child will be identified as the one to be educated, and the other children will leave school as early as is feasible in order to pay for that child's education. The educated child, if successful repays the debt when he becomes productive.
Children are only expensive if they are treated in a way that fails to educate them in the ways of the real world.
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