Child Labor Documentary Analysis

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Recommended: The advantages of child labour

This film was very fascinating and I was intrigued by the progression of the labor history pertaining to immigrants in the United States. A large chunk of this documentary was dedicated to the various labor organizations, unions, and strikes throughout the early 1990’s, however, what struck me most, was fairly early on in the film (about 10 minutes) pertaining to child labor. There was a statistic that over 2 million kids were employed, but over 6 million adults were unemployed. A voiceover suggested that so many grown-ups were in this state because why would someone “hire an adult for $1, when you could hire a kid for a dime” (Mayer, 1964). Not only was I startled by the minimal hourly wages and appalled at the thought of a young child working

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