Ultimately, it was capitalism and its ever-higher productivity that made it possible for parents to earn enough to feed the family and keep the children at home.
Certainly, there were hellish examples of cruelty in some places where children worked. Those places were often government-run poor houses for orphans, or early factories where government agencies assigned “parish-apprentice” orphans to work under no supervision.
To blame capitalists and capitalism for what was frequently a government-created problem is outrageously unfair. Ultimately, it was capitalism and its ever-higher productivity that made it possible for parents to earn enough to feed the family and keep the children at home.
____
By L. W. Reed, first published at FEE.
Page 12
