Industrialization and Child Labor Child labor may be morally repugnant, but economists go further and rationally support policies that help children. Traditional arguments based on perfect competition are useless and even suggest that child labor might be a good thing. The argument is made convincingly in Krugman's “In Praise of Cheap Labor.” Legislating higher wages for some groups will most likely reduce overall employment and worsen the situation of workers as a class. Banning child labor can force children to abandon legitimate work for unaccountable and not necessarily legal work. Given that the sex trade is highly profitable and illegal, it is easy to imagine that this could make the situation worse for children. As the Industrial Revolution accelerated, thousands of factories sprang up across the country. There were no laws relating to the management of factories because there was no need for them before. As a result, dangerous machinery was used that could, and often did, cause serious injury to workers. In addition to these dangers, people had to work incredibly long hours, often through the night. Perhaps one of the worst aspects of this new industrial era has been the use of child labor. Very young children worked extremely long hours and could be severely punished for any mistakes. Arriving late for work could result in a large fine and maybe even a beating. Sleeping in front of a car could result in the accidental loss of a limb. People began to realize how bad these conditions were in many factories and began to campaign for improvements. There was much resistance from factory owners who felt that this would slow down the operation of their factories and make their products more expensive. Many didn't even like the...... middle of paper....... According to CRY, child labor is not adequately addressed and the conviction rate is also low. It is not only the hospitality sector that employs children as workers, but the domestic manufacturing sector and many other sectors are also doing the same. Many organizations are trying to help child labor today, but not many are taking action. The problem is that big companies make too much money and don't want to give up because they might lose some of it. They don't care about children's rights, as long as they produce their products cheaply in large quantities. I think all the big companies, for example Walmart and Nike, have been fooled into thinking that this is better than starving them and dying in the streets. They just want to make Americans happy by providing them cheap materials so they can make profits we don't care about.