Fake $9 Chinese Intel 8087 chip from eBay

[ebastler]

Supposing they do, why do you think they would use child labor?
Because they are bad parents who do not love their children?
Or could there be other reasons?

I would argue that legalizing and supporting child labor in industry helps mostly the companies which employ them, not the families who are employed:

It lets the companies get away with paying salaries to the adults which are not sufficient to feed a family. Indeed it encourages paying such low salaries, because these force the parents to let their children work as well -- more labor force, at even lower cost.

If child labor is outlawed or boycotted, yes, maybe economic growth slows down somewhat. But industry margins would take a bigger hit than family incomes, I believe, since salary levels would have to increase somewhat.

[soldar]

That does not answer my question.

In any case, child labor is pretty much illegal everywhere. It is easy to make laws. Not so easy to change reality.

And, I would dispute there is any significant amount of child labor in China anyway.

[ebastler]

That does not answer my question.

But if you apply some of those "traces of grey matter", you might figure it out. 

Of course, parents do not let their children work because the dislike them, but because the economic conditions force them to do so. But the economic conditions are shaped the way they are because society tolerates child labor. That is what I said in my post.

[chris_leyson]

Not sure if the guy who made the video really understands copyright. He says the 8087 wasn't released until 1980 but the chip is copyright 1978 therefore it must be a fake. Some aspects of the 8087 co-processor design probably were copyrighted in 1978 and after further improvements in later years the copyright is just updated. Out of curiosity I went looking for images of Intel 8087 co-processors and on the first page there is an image of a D8087-1 from Ken Shirriff's blog, copyright 1978.

[soldar]

It is simplistic thinking that you can just pass a law and things magically change.

https://www.dartmouth.edu/~eedmonds/nzzessay.pdf

Child labor pervades the developing world.  The International Labour Office estimates that at least 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 15 are working.  This prevalence of child labor upsets many people in rich countries.  As a result, governments in Europe and elsewhere have imposed or threatened to impose trade sanctions that restrict the sale of goods from developing countries.  The stated aim of these sanctions is to force developing countries to take steps towards the elimination of child labor.

However, several recent studies have found that the employers of these child laborers are usually their parents, and that these parents prefer their laboring children to attend school rather than work.  Poverty creates child labor.  A new study examining child labor in over 4,000 Vietnamese households during the 1990s suggests that when globalization improves the income of impoverished households, this additional income helps parents reduce the workload of their children and send more of them to school.

If you want to improve the lives of children (and adults) in poor countries the best way is to help them develop.

[Bud]

Did you ask them if they want to?

[soldar]

Are you serious?