Child labor in the low end segment

MannDude said:

Teens don't have a cost of living, they live at home. They don't have bills. They don't have mouths to feed except their own in the lunch line at school.

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I would say you are assuming quite a lot there I had a part-time job at 14, full-time by 16 living on my own, and knew quite few other 16-18 year olds in the same situation. There are a lot of self-supporting teens from broken families and other not-so-great situations, out there, also quite a few teen parents who actually try to feed and house their little ones. Just wanted to point that out.

rupe said:

I would say you are assuming quite a lot there I had a part-time job at 14, full-time by 16 living on my own, and knew quite few other 16-18 year olds in the same situation. There are a lot of self-supporting teens from broken families and other not-so-great situations, out there, also quite a few teen parents who actually try to feed and house their little ones. Just wanted to point that out.

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Well, that's quite rare. In the USA you can not live on your own until you're 18, or have been emancipated by a court. I suppose there are indeed minors who certainly have to help around the house and assist in paying their own way, but generally speaking what I said was true. Some of these hosts can operate because they're owned by, and staffed by teens. Getting very little return on their operation is sustainable when you have a reduced/no cost of living. Throw in a car, house or student loan debt payments. Throw in rent, groceries and utility bills as well, any other misc costs (health insurance, furnishing your house/apartment, hobbies and money for pleasantries like going out to eat or taking a trip to the city or seeing a movie, etc)... and suddenly selling 4GB VPSes for $7/mo seems ridiculous... haha.

Agreeing with Curtis on this one.  In fact.. it seems a bit of a trend that most of the minor/kid hosts (and even some "datacenters") you see tend to come from rich families and be quite spoiled anyways, with daddy's wallet ready to handle their investments and bail them out of any trouble.  Robert Clarke quickly comes to mind as a proper example - and I'm sure a couple of us are mentally naming a more recently-relevant 'company' that fits the bill as well.