this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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"The Canner Kids of Baltimore, 1909 Baltimore’s oyster and vegetable canneries ran on children. “Canner Kids” started at 4am, shucked oysters or snipped beans for 14 hours, and slept in the cannery. Ages 4 to 14. No school. No gloves.

8-year-old Mamie “Bean” Kowalski was a bean snipper. Her job was to break off the ends – 2 tons per day to make $1. Her fingers bled into the beans. At night she hid under the tables and slept there because the walk to the tenement was too far.

In 1909, Lewis Hine photographed her. He asked her age. She said “I don’t remember.” He asked what she wanted to be. She said “I’d like to go to school.” The photo ran nationally with the caption “The Price of Beans.”

Public fury forced Maryland to pass its first child labor law in 1912. Mamie got to 4th grade before she had to work again. She kept Hine’s photo her whole life.

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[–] Ravenheart@lemmy.zip 12 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

The nature of work (employment) under capitalism is different though.

  1. It overrides intrinsic motivations (love, community, fun, meeting needs) and forces upon us an extrinsic motivation (make as much money for the boss as possible or starve to death.)
  2. It is inherently cruel and wasteful. We already produce enough to meet everyone's needs, yet the capitalist hoards the fruits of working class labor, then forces us to buy it back from them. And whatever can't be sold will be discarded rather than given to people who need it. Food will be thrown into dumpsters while children starve in the streets. Poverty is a feature under capitalism, not a bug. When you see a hungry person under capitalism, remember that they are not hungry because they failed to earn food, they are hungry because food was willfully withheld from them.
  3. It is inherently exploitative. Your employer will never pay you the full value of your labor. If they did, they wouldn't have any incentive to employ you. They always steal some or a lot of the value you produce with your labor.
  4. It is inherently authoritarian and alienating. It separates you from the fruits of your labor. It forces you to compete with your coworkers. You have no say in what you produce, how you produce, and where you send it after it's produced. You have no say in the hours you work, when you take breaks, what you wear, how you talk, and how to treat customers. If you break the rules, your employer will deprive you and your family of your livelihood.

Yes, children will always work. Work is a good thing. But it is for all the above reasons and more that we must not let capitalists employ children. And they're also the reasons why capitalism must be abolished entirely. It cannot be reformed.