by James Springer. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 1997.
The author of this book is truly a jerkwad.
Springer ruins the legitimate facts he brings up about child labour by throwing in children working in industrialised countries. That's right. The guy actually equates a ten year old working in a Pakistani carpet factory thirteen hours a day with a teenager working at McDonald's for a few hours after school.
Springer talks about how businesses exploit teenagers by paying them less per hour than adults and by giving them shorter shifts so they don't have to allow breaks. Well, teenagers are looking to get experience in the working world. They are also looking to earn money. This isn't necissarily to buy consumer goods in our money-driven society. A lot of teenagers, particularly where I live, are working to pay the expenses of owning a car, a necessity in a rural area without public transportation such as where I live. as well as car expenses (which keep going up with Liberal governments), teenagers are also working to earn money for university tuition. Businesses have to make a profit so teenagers are a good fit for a store or restaurant economically.
Springer doesn't really want to hold the feet of big multinational fast food chains to the fire. Instead, his real goal, as it is with all these new world order people, is to shut down local restaurants and other small businesses that employ teenagers. That way, when the former employees of those places can't find work because everything else has gone bankrupt, they will rush into the arms of the government for their sustinance and welfare.
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