When the parties involved in any transaction are unequal in status, the relationship is likely to be one-sided, and the interests of one party to suffer.
John Dewey
The Public Record
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century.
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If the consequences appear serious, especially if they seem to be irretrievable, the public brings to bear a weight that will equalize conditions.
Legislatures are more ready to regulate the hours of labor of children than of adults, of women than of men.
Labor unions often object, however, to such “paternalistic” legislation on the ground that voluntary combinations to ensure collective bargaining is better for those concerned than action taken without the active participation of laborers.
The general objection that paternalism tends to keep those affected by it permanently in the status of children, without an impetus to help themselves, rests on the same basis.
The difference here is nevertheless not as to the principle that inequality of status may call for public intervention, but as to the best means of securing and maintaining equality.
There has been a steady tendency for the education of children to be regarded as properly a state charge in spite of the fact that children are primarily the care of a family.
But the period in which education is possible to an effective degree is that of childhood; if this time is not taken advantage of the consequences are irreparable.
Again, the consequences of neglect of safeguards in industries involving machines which are dangerous and those presenting unhygienic conditions, are so serious and irretrievable that the modern public has intervened to maintain conditions…
While public regulation of a minimum wage is still a disputed matter, the argument in behalf of it appeals to the criterion stated.
The argument in effect is that a living wage is a matter of such serious indirect consequences to society that it cannot be safely left to the parties directly concerned, owing to the fact that immediate need may incapacitate one party to…
If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between “facts” and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussion.