Source? I have a hard time believing that. If companies really stopped using kids in their supply chains, common sense would be for more adults to find jobs, which would result in better conditions for other kids.
In other words focusing on "conditions" misses the whole point: child labor is anticompetitive because it's all about lowering prices by exploiting the weak and the defenseless. Thinking about the "conditions" won't move the needle, not as long as child labor remains competitive. Child labor would happen near you if the law would allow it, because it makes economic sense to hire children instead of adults for half the price and there are always poor people to exploit.
Also, have you ever considered that some of those exploited children were born because child labor is a possibility?
One should not forget that an economy is a very complex beast, any changes have far reaching consequences and that doing the right thing is never easy.
Basic income is easy and would solve all of these problems. Just ensure everyone has the capital to satisfy their basic needs. Then if child labor emerged near me I'd know it was inspired by self-discipline or ambition and not poverty. I wanted to work when I was 14 but I wasn't allowed to. Apparently my employment was caught in the crossfire of the rich people exploiting poor kids and the regulators trying to stop them. You can't just ban the employment of poor kids. That's certain to fail politically. So ban the employment of all kids? Ugh. It doesn't have to be like this. Just make it impossible to be poor. You can say that it just changes what it means to be poor. In fact that's essential. When someone with food, shelter and the unsatisfied desire for an Xbox can't see themselves as poor it is only because there is someone poorer. I can't compete with this poorer person's desperation for security. They would do anything for food and shelter. Despite being a member of this new poor class I'm totally secure. I just want an Xbox. I won't enter a job market that is merely good enough for the desperate until I am also sufficiently desperate. Like much of America is becoming. The only solution to this problem is to extinguish the status quo of insecurity. The poorest of the poor need to be secure or soon none of us will be.
In other words focusing on "conditions" misses the whole point: child labor is anticompetitive because it's all about lowering prices by exploiting the weak and the defenseless. Thinking about the "conditions" won't move the needle, not as long as child labor remains competitive. Child labor would happen near you if the law would allow it, because it makes economic sense to hire children instead of adults for half the price and there are always poor people to exploit.
Also, have you ever considered that some of those exploited children were born because child labor is a possibility?
One should not forget that an economy is a very complex beast, any changes have far reaching consequences and that doing the right thing is never easy.