Poverty

The article "Live Free and Starve" pointed out the interestingly unheard of point that children being forced into child labor, although being deprived of their childhood, at least have somewhere to sleep and enough to eat. Divakaruni tells a story of a young, impoverished boy, hired by his mother to do things like "sweeping and pumping water from the tube-well", in exchange for having a home to live in and money to take back to his family. The author states "Still, I would not disagree with anyone who says that it was hardly a desirable existence for a child. But what would life have been like for Nimai if an anti-child-labor law had prohibited my mom from hiring him?" It is true that without any income, the children from these impoverished families might live an even more desperate existence, but is it worth it to have freedom? I think so. America should do more to help those families pay for meals and school, etc. but it is unacceptable to have children working 9 hours a day in such harsh environments as crowded factories filled with toxic fumes.

Singer focuses more, not on whether impoverished children would be better off with small wages or freedom, and more on the fact that while Americans are disgusted that someone could directly choose their posessions and own well-being over a suffering child's life, most of us are sitting at home surrounded by wants, not needs and unwilling to give it up. These two opinions voiced in these article clash, but not directly, more the author's beliefs on morality oppose. Singer talks more about the difference, morally between people who directly choose their things over lives of sufferring children, and those who are disgusted by the previous, but themselves indirectly choose themselves over impoverished children. Divakaruni talks about what is best for children in third world countries, on labor laws. I agree with Singers views on this situation more. He points out that we are snuggled up in our comfortable homes, feeling sorry for the needy, but unwilling to help them ourselves.