Cool points for child labor yo. So because people are in terrible situations, I should actively seek that out to exploit it? Man, these kids have no other choice, better get my cheap labor while I can! Why not even free labor if possible?[1]
Same arguments were used for slave labor. How are they going to take care of themselves? Might as well just keep them as slaves. What are we going to do, pay them?
Child labor has been used by just about every major fashion brand in the world, not just to "make bricks for their village"... If that's the extent of what you think child labor is, might want to check out some books or do some googling. Here's just one to get you started: [2].
My whole point is that it's really hard to ever classify exploitation as "good". I guess you can spin taking advantage of those in worse situations as good, but profiting (handsomely) off of people with good options doesn't seem morally great. Certainly good for business. But good for humans? This also isn't lifting Kenya out of poverty, this was a short term contract for a few dozen workers. If this signals to other businesses that Kenya is a great place for cheap labor and little regulation, it could very easily be turn bad for many Kenyans.
Are all the sweatshop and slave labor[1] jobs created by Zara good for those children and slaves? You get cheap clothes out of it after all. But is it really helping anyone other than Zara, and their CEO who is worth ..checks notes... 50+ billion dollars?
Companies could help a lot more by increasing labor standards, helping those in need, paying above a living day to day wage, etc. The would still have a few billion left in the bank I believe...
Sad to see the viewpoints of so many people framing this as "helping Kenya" or "They took the job, so it's worth it to them". I can assure you OpenAI did not have a charity meeting and say, "what poor, impoverished country can we lift up today?" It was "What country has limited labor laws, no unions, no red tape, and the cheapest labor we can find?" 99.99% of corporations put profit above people. That's why we still "benefit" from child labor and sweatshops, because we prefer cheap crap and money over the betterment of humanity. The same arguments given here were also given by coal miners in 1840's Europe[1],[2] when employing women and children, along the lines of "oh the children love it, they even get to see horses!" (and indeed, the children did show up to work every day, so why make a fuss?)
Same arguments were used for slave labor. How are they going to take care of themselves? Might as well just keep them as slaves. What are we going to do, pay them?
Child labor has been used by just about every major fashion brand in the world, not just to "make bricks for their village"... If that's the extent of what you think child labor is, might want to check out some books or do some googling. Here's just one to get you started: [2].
[1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2011/08/17/zara... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_sweatshops