Lemus 1

Julia Lemus
Dr. Theresa Schmits
English 1
13 June 2016
How Child Labor is Associated with Poverty and Government Assistance
The United States has been fighting a war against poverty since the Great Depression.
However, the little success the US government has had in reducing poverty is overshadowed by
the daily things we see as poverty. Whether it is being below the poverty line or not having
enough money for essentials, poverty affects 14.5% of all Americans. (citation needed). This puts
the United States, which stands for freedom and is seen as the land of opportunity, in a society
where the rich and poor are divided by stigma and living conditions led by poverty. Poverty in
the US is embarrassingly associated with child labor, and this is a trend that has continued since
the Great Depression, which plagues our history and our future as the model country of the
world.
Poverty is associated with a lot of things; homelessness, unsafe working conditions, third
world countries, etc. However, outsiders to the US dont link our country to poverty, as it is seen
as a first world country. To the poor in the United States, the situation is completely different.
Poverty to the American poor is an endless cycle, and even with the help that the government
provides. This results in the things we associate with poverty today, and also the things we have
seen throughout the years that people have done because of poverty.
To know the origin of the association between poverty and child labor, we need to look at
the biggest instances of child labor gone wrong. This brings in the argument of unethical
practices within companies. We have all heard of the young Asian workers that work making

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Apple products (Wakefield), but what most people seem to overlook is the fact that US
companies have hired children before. The most prominent example is the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory fire on March 25th, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist factory employed young immigrant
women, mostly between the ages of 16-23, and practiced many infringements on the practically
nonexistent child labor laws of the early 20th century. The doors were locked after workers
clocked in, and their purses were searched daily. In the building, exits were covered, elevators
could only hold a certain number of people, and fire escapes were incomplete, which led to the
suicides of the women who had no way out (History). Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the owners
of the company, had already been the subject of controversy among workers, as they consistently
lowered wages and ignored demands for shorter hours. Women joined labor unions and striked
against the company, only to be shut out by strikebreakers who would work for lower wages for
the sake of making money. After the fire, which claimed 146 lives, child labor laws become
somewhat stronger and more notable, but it has not stopped the practice of child labor.
The Triangle Shirtwaist fire brought attention to child labor (albeit, it did not solve it
completely), and introduced new laws that contributed to the improvement of work in factories.
In New York, where the fire took place, a Factory Investigation Commission was put up to
investigate the factories in the city (politicalcorrectness.org). They passed 36 laws that pertained
to protecting workers in danger of being exploited. Among the laws passed, there was a couple
that were meant to protect children against labor. In 1913, the seventh recommendation from the
Fourth Report of the Factory Investigation Commission stated, Prohibition of employment of
children under fourteen, in cannery sheds or tenement houses; definition of factory building;
definition of tenement house. Although this was passed, it did not pertain to all states, which
could still exploit children through labor. Another recommendation in the Fourth report stated,

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Amendment to Child Labor Law; physical examination before issuance of employment
certificate; school record; supervision over issuance of employment certificate. Children were
required to be in school in order to work, so these recommendations did shield some children
from labor exploitation. However, these recommendations were only recommendations, so the
state of New York could pick and choose what got passed and what didnt. Eventually, the state
of poverty remained in association with child labor.
The start of notable poverty in the US was arguably during the Great Depression in the
1930s, when the stock market crashed and millions of Americans lost their jobs and life savings.
In 1932, the first president to run on a platform to reduce poverty, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
won the US presidential election, and set out to help the US end the Great Depression. His New
Deal was introduced to the public right after he took on the presidency and with it came many
benefits that we still can enjoy (or resent, depending on what side you are on). Both Roosevelt
and his wife Eleanor Roosevelt worked towards improving life in the US, and are now regaled as
the greatest political couple. Eleanor Roosevelt took advantage of her position as First Lady, and
mainly defended and looked out for the minorities who were so often left behind (Addis).
Roosevelt released the various parts of the New Deal over the course of his presidency,
which contributed to some economic prosperity that led to the end of the Great Depression.
Among the many programs in the New Deal stands the SSA, better known as the Social Security
Administration (Smithsonian). The invention of Social Security proved beneficial for the older
generations, as the elderly were taken out of work and given money for the work that they had
done over the years (which is now known as a retirement fund). For the younger generations, the
WPA (Works Progress Administration) opened up new jobs (mostly factory jobs), which
increased the work force of the United States and started a new industrialization era.

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Before Roosevelt took office, the people who had not been laid off worked in abusive
environments with little pay, and they brought their children with them. In the Central Valley of
California, many of the pickers were children, who worked alongside their parents to bring in
more money for the family. The film Grapes of Wrath demonstrates this, with the migration of
an Oklahoma family to California during the Great Depression in order to have money (Grapes
of Wrath). Poverty has affected all people since the Great Depression, and even now the issue is
not resolved.
This is seen in the present as well, where children lie about their age in order to work in
the fields. In the movie, McFarland some of the protagonists are seen rising early to pick fruit
and then leaving for school, only to leave school early to pick fruit again (McFarland). The city
McFarland is in the Central Valley, and the movie is based off of a real life story on the sons of
Mexican immigrants living in poverty. However, child labor is prevalent across all of poverty,
not just with minorities.
The book Deer Hunting with Jesus, Joe Bageant retells the stories of the poor white
working class in Winchester, Virginia. He tells of multiple people who struggle to live their lives
and eventually accept that there is no way out of poverty. Although the book does not mention
child labor, it is easy to infer that most of the people in Winchester had been working since a
young age, either around the house or in under the table paying jobs. The things that allow for
child labor in these occasions are the vulnerability of the poor. Parents are exploited to work for
cheap labor while their children are left with the choice of taking care of the house or finding a
job.
In Deer Hunting with Jesus, Bageant recounts the stories of the Rubbermaid workers,
who often have to commute several hours daily to get to their jobs (pg.56). He includes a

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description of the types of workers, one of them being the others barely out of high school
(Bageant, 56). This constitutes as child labor, because even though they might have graduated
from high school, we know that the only reason these graduates commuted hours to their jobs
was because they lied in poverty. Again. child labor and poverty go in hand due to the sacrifices
impoverished teens make to get more money for their family. In an impoverished family, every
person has a labor role from the moment they can do any labor, because that is what is necessary
to stay afloat in a suffering economy.
Government assistance has increased since the Great Depression, but it also has faults
and loopholes that can exploit those living in poverty. Programs such as welfare, WIC (Women,
Infant, Children), and Medical are common in the US among the poor working class. However,
there are many qualifications that a person needs to meet in order to qualify for these government
assistance programs. The most obvious are having a low-income household by being under the
low income limit(citation needed). Even $20 dollars over this limit can disqualify someone from
receiving assistance. Thus, some of the poor working class are left without assistance and they
are rendered incapable of getting out of the poverty cycle.
The biggest argument against the poverty cycle is the people who have gotten out of it,
better known as the people who have the rags-to-riches stories. Those stories may exist and be
true, but poor people know that they are extremely rare. Poor people know that no matter how
many jobs they take on and how little they spend, they still struggle to keep their head above
water. That does not necessarily mean that people in poverty dont try to get out of it, rather, it
means that they are likely to give up and live in conformity.