Through this book, Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children, Viviana A. Zelizer explores the development of childhood and youth through the late 19th century into the early and mid 20th century. Zelizer begins her book by describing the transition from a child's insignificance throughout time to a sanctified view of children that began in Europe and America throughout the 19th century. This transpired mainly through the middle and upper-class families. Before this shift, the analysis of a child death was non-existent. Zelizer explains 18th century parents were detached from their young, therefore were able to maintain a sort of remoteness when losing one of their young. However by the turn of the century, a remarkable change had taken place and the death of a child had become the worst loss a parent could endure. Children had become sacred and looked after by whole communities. .
By 1910, accidents had become the leading cause of childhood death. Because children were held in such high regard, the public endorsed increased safety precautions to combat the loss of their children. A major precaution was to eliminate children playing in the streets where they were susceptible to automobiles and streetcars (the leading cause of accidental child death). Playgrounds were built and parents were asked to accommodate their children by allowing them to play inside by setting up designated play areas. Following child death and the extreme transition that transformed the public view of it, Zelizer delved into another relevant topic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, labor issues. .
By the late 19th century, child labor was the main source of additional income to the family. Children became the second largest wage earners of the family. Children's wages added more income to the family, than did their working mothers. However, with a growing compassion for children, a dispute rose over the value of the child as being economic or sentimental.
Childhood is a priceless time in someone's life, it determines who the infant will grow into. A happy carefree youth will most likely shape the child into becoming a cheerful, hardworking adult. ... One cannot put a price on youth. A child that is ripped away from his carefree childhood would become a completely different adult.. ... The youngest child in the story feels he is being abandoned and feels violated. ...
Now the question that I have is, " Does a human life have a price?" Well according to these people it does, and the price that they decided to put on a human life has been as low as fifteen dollars. ... What parent would not want this for his child, especially when they can't offer anything better to them The United States sexual slavery exists as well. ... In one U.S. shelter in Southern California has rescued 10,000 child prostitutes alone most of these children ranging from ages 11 to 17 where trafficked by pimps. ... This is something that is priceless. ...
The financial cost of child-rearing is enormous, but oftentimes it is the cost of my sanity that seems the most unbearable. ... Delayed gratification is another one of the parental prices one must pay when having children. ... I don't regret any of it because what I have now and what I will have in the future is priceless, so I offer this: My oldest son made me a grandmother. ...
The ad I wish to examine is one in which items (presumably to be used for terrorist acts) flash on the screen, and in between, prices are listed. The ad is reminiscent of the popular credit card commercials depicting items' prices and containing a final "priceless" item. ... As the image changes, a price appears on the screen against a black background, to somehow illustrate that all of the items that will appear had a price "therefore the money must have come from something illegal. ... Since I was a small child, I have firmly believed that drugs are immoral and rightfully illegal. ...
For example in the Philippines today, there is always a crisis upon the price of gasoline. ... By their point of view the consumers are not paying enough for their product and they demand they raise their prices. ... The government is trying to stop them however they argue that tampering with the price of a product of a private company is illegal. ... At presents millions of people are stripped of their dignities, we always here in the news of forced child labor, illegal wages and all these things. ... Stockmann knew what is best for society, fixing the springs may cause a lot however it will ...
According to a survey commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream, "the average American child aged 12-17 who asks their parents for products they've seen advertised will ask nine times until their parents finally give in."" ... Some of their enlightening statistics are: The average American child may view as many of 40,000 television commercials every year. ... It's time that parents, guardians, and child advocates take a stand against this atrocity. ... What price must they pay? There is none, America's children are priceless. ...
In the hospital tents, the dead and dying "lie on the ground after the battletheir priceless blood reddens the grass," (The Wound-Dresser, 11 27-28). ... The war: "makes no parley-nor stops for no expostulation, Minds not the timid-minds not the weeper or prayer, Minds not the old man beseeching the young man, Lets not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties," (Beat! ... American blood has a price. ...
With this emergence, surrogacy became a regulated process by which the couple writes out what is expected of the surrogate mother, such as turning over the child when born, and sets a price or compensation that the mother will receive for her efforts. ... However, since surrogacy cases involve a child, things are not so cut and dry. ... However, since both sides present such compelling arguments, it is often very hard to decide which side should be awarded the child. ... They say no woman can give informed consent about waiving the right to raise her own child. ... They feel by placing a p...
Therefore, it is highly beneficial for all parties involved to have a mutually beneficial contract that acknowledges that there can be a real wage price for a priceless item, such as the gestational period to produce a child. ... When a woman has economic viability she is able to care for her family, herself and invest in her child's future. ... This reservation transpires because Humbyrd states that payment to the surrogate must be independent of the pregnancy outcome (miscarriage, voluntarily abortion, stillbirth or disabled child) (Humbyrd pp.117). ... Intended parents are not protecte...
