From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Wed Feb 20 2008 - 08:02:49 EST
For a Marxian, this is a no-brainer: *of course* child workers are exploited. Yet, Peter Dorman - living up to the maxim of "Econospeak" to be "economically incorrect" - offers a different answer in a recent working paper published by the ILO called "Child labor wages and productivity: results from demand-side surveys". Dorman discusses his paper here: http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2008/02/are-child-laborers-exploited.html which includes a link to the paper. The abstract says that the paper examines "wages and productivity of children and adults in two occupations in each of four selected countries in different world regions. Survey work was carried out in Ghana, India, the Philippines and Uganda in 2004 and 2005". Dorman's empirical study offers a rather weak answer to the question "are child labourers exploited?". "The bottom line is", for him, "sometimes, under some conditions". His answer, of course, depends on how you define exploitation. No doubt, there are variations in productivity between children and adults and among children in different occupations and social formations. No doubt, wage differentials among these workers also exists. No doubt, some children are _abused_ and _taken advantage of_ to a greater or lesser extent by different capitalists. But, aren't _all_ child workers who are productive of surplus value exploited? Indeed, aren't all wage-workers - regardless of age - who are productive of surplus-value exploited? In solidarity, Jerry _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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