Below is an essay responding to Clark Nardinelli's research on child labor during the Industrial Revolution. Although our impulsive response to such a system is one of disgust, such sentiments lack sympathy for nineteenth-century families and the choices they faced. Indeed, families viewed child labor with such favor that child labor laws could not be passed until 1) a regional economy no longer utilized child labor and 2) special interest groups such as unions joined forces with the relatively small romantic movement against child labor. Nardinelli's work reminds us to remember the importance of choices and how premature restriction of choice can harm families over the long-run. ______ Nearly eight decades after the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act, public opinion sees child labor as a relic of an ignorant and archaic past. The prohibition of employing children under fourteen has been seen as a moral victory over abusive business practices proliferated in the late nine