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Here’s a letter that I sent to the Boston Globe:
You applaud efforts by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood to thwart “Big Business’ attempts to turn [children] into consumers of junk food, junk toys, and junk entertainment” (“Bowing to corporate America, Judge Baker center loses face [2],” March 13). While I admire these activists’ zealous concern for children, I think it to be misdirected.
No business – “big” or otherwise – can, without special privileges from government, force children or parents to do anything. Disney doesn’t imprison parents who don’t let their kids watch the Disney Channel, and Little Debbie doesn’t pull out a gun to shoot children who turn up their noses at her cupcakes.
So, a far better use of these activists’ energies would be in a Campaign for a Government-Free Childhood. This campaign would work to protect children from truly harmful exercises of genuine power and judgment-impairing fraud – such as government schooling, minimum-wage legislation that prices many teenagers out of the labor market, and the obvious scam of each politician boasting the title “Honorable.”
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux