THEY HAVE IT MADE! They can start work as young as 8 years old and work the farms for 9-10 hours as day under our glorious sun. Sure, they sweat a little in the 100 degree heat, but it’s good for them. They should be grateful that, at their age, they can earn $1000 a year to put into the family funds, which (with 4 worker in the family) can add up to $12,500-$14,500 a year–plenty, since they live so simply. Which is good for everyone, because if they got paid more our food prices would go up.
Half of the migrant kids don’t have to attend boring school regularly or graduate high school. They don’t need to because they’ll spend their lives moving around anyway. Besides, they know they have job security because they can spend the rest of their lives as migrant day laborers.
Other kids don’t have it so good. The still-in-effect 1930s child labor laws, which don’t apply to farm-workers, prohibit kids from getting those good agricultural jobs until they’re older, and they won’t let the kids work as many hours. Other kids, then, have to find jobs at the local burger joint or whatever instead of having a healthy outdoor job of picking fruits and vegetables.
There’s something wrong with this system, don’t you think?