Quote from: DumbFruit on October 30, 2014, 03:08:04 PM

Despite the total ridiculousness of that image, who benefited from the coal they produced? Did the rich people throw it all in a big pile in their backyard burn it and laugh while holding their fat bellies, and holding a cigar in their teeth, and a monocle in their eyes?
Did rich people perhaps figure out a way to eat it all with their caviar?

Also, if this is capitalism, then the children are better off working in the mines than otherwise. Why do you suppose children and adults choose to work in such conditions?

Quote from: practicaldreamer on October 30, 2014, 02:55:13 PM

It is certainly no foundation on which to build a welfare system for those most vulnerable in society.

No? This is a more solid foundation?
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

You, sir, are a real asshole.
They would be better off in a school learning something for their future, than dying from a polluted lung before they even reach adulthood.
But sure, in your "ideal" world, education is just for the ones who can afford it and some children a rich person took pity on.