WEBVTT - Selects: Child Labor: Not Funny 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.400 Hey, everybody, this is Joshuam. For this week's select, I've 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.840 chosen our August twenty twenty one episode on child Labor. 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:10.000 It's one of those rare episodes that contains a mention 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.040 of an episode that we should do that we actually 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.920 did the Newsy Strike, So it's significant for that reason. 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.240 And it is a fairly bleak episode, as you might guess, 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.560 but it also goes to show how far we've come. 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:36.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:39.600 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.680 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant and 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:48.159 Jerry's out there hovering around in the digital weird audio 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:49.400 ether and. 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:50.440 This is stuff you should know. 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.080 This is gonna be a good, uplifting, fun one bouncy 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.480 light one. 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:57.120 I think so. 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.920 And it's you know, hot off the presses from our 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.440 uh my daughter just wrote this episode for us. 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:08.720 Yeah, yeah, in record time too. I was impressed. He 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:10.640 didn't pay her, did you no? 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:12.920 But it's funny. I went to look up. 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.479 You know, I've talked before about, you know the fact 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:17.280 that I started working when I was thirteen at a 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:22.440 barbecue restaurant and minimum wage when I started working, was 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:24.440 three dollars and thirty five cents an hour. 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.120 Wow, we how far we've come at Yeah, not far. 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.880 They've doubled it here at past whatever forty years. 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:33.760 Isn't that nuts, dude? 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:35.560 Yeah, and you know we'll get to that. 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.920 But I have a list of kind of where we 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.360 ended up with minimum wage along the years. But yeah, 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.959 JJ's barbecue three thirty five an hour, baby. 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:48.880 Wow, that's pretty great. My first job was even. 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:49.240 Younger than that. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:50.880 I was like nine or ten when I was a 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:52.840 paper boy. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:53.440 Yeah. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.880 I mean I couldn't have made more than because I was. 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:57.360 It's not like I was working every night. I was 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:01.000 working weekends. I probably made like less than fifty dollars 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:01.400 a week. 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.320 But I mean, you're thirteen. What were you spending on thirteen? 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.520 And like a good clean Christian kid, you weren't spending 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:09.280 that on anything. 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:12.000 Archie comics. It buys a lot of Archie comics, Yeah. 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.799 It does, Yes, it does, although they have a lot 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.680 of variations, so you could easily spend fifty dollars a 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:19.400 week on Archie comics. 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.240 Back then, though those things were cheap. I was living 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.480 high on the hog, but thirteen. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.000 So it sounds like a man. So our buddy Dave 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.200 helped us out with this one. Dave Rus and he 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.080 makes a really good point that you and I sitting 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.480 around talking about, you know, you made fifty. 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:35.720 Bucks a week. 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.040 I was a paper boy, like whatever stresses and troubles 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:43.800 that we ran into post you know, nineteen seventy something. 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.960 As far as our first jobs go when we were younger, 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.360 that does not qualify as child labs. That's not really 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:52.760 what we're talking about here today. 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:54.600 It's called the kid having a job exactly. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.200 It's called you just stop your griping right now, because 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.080 there are actual kids out there who are like real 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:05.600 deal child laborers who work in like dangerous conditions for 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.360 little to no pay, who don't get to play, who 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:11.760 may not socialize with other kids their age. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:13.079 They may live and. 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.440 Work in a mining camp with nothing but adults and 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:21.240 grown ups, like like they would kill for you know, 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:22.800 a JJ's barbecue job. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.920 Basically, yeah, and this is a good time to be 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:30.200 talking about that in particular because this is twenty twenty one, 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.760 is the International Year for the Elimination of Child labor. 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:36.640 And as you'll see throughout this episode, we've made a 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.640 lot of strides here in the US, but like you said, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.240 it's not not that way everywhere, and it should be. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.840 And I should say it's probably a little off the 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.320 mark to say that a child laborer would kill for 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:50.160 a better job. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.080 They would probably kill to just not have. 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.760 To work at all in general, and just to get to. 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:55.320 Be a kid. 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.240 And I think ultimately, for people who are activists against 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.760 child labor, that's the goal is to not like get 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.760 better working conditions for six year olds, it's to like 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.960 just make six year olds not have to work any longer. 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.640 And we'll talk about how to solve that, how that 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.960 that International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor aims 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:19.440 to do that. They have some pretty pragmatic ideas and 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.320 so hopefully they'll this this episode of a nice bow 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.240 on the end. But we're gonna have to slog through 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:27.279 some misery to get there, Chuck, take it away. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.839 There's no better place to slog through misery than the 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.320 founding of this country, way back in the old days, 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:41.240 when the New World was new and settlers came over 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.240 and they very much believed. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.200 And why did I think this was ed? You said, 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:45.680 this is Dave. 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.479 Yeah, I'm almost positive it was Dave was ed. It 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.720 reads like a Dave to me, but oh man, if 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:52.680 it's Ed, I'm sorry. 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:54.719 Sorry to both. 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.800 Well, sure you need to get those guys together one. 0:04:57.720 --> 0:04:58.840 Day, I think the year. 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:01.520 Maybe we should keep them for our Yeah exactly, they 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.000 might they might turn against us. 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:05.160 Yeah. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.000 So they believe very much that the idol's hands were 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.359 the devil's workshop, that old saying, And you know, this 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:12.760 is one of those It was kind of hard for 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.160 me to you know, let's just lop off, you know, 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.960 developing nations today, which is clearly awful. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:20.560 I found myself. 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.159 As an adult more and more with the cultural relativism, 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.160 thinking like, obviously, five year olds shouldn't be working in factories. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.720 But when I read about like twelve and thirteen year 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.000 olds working hard back then, I was kind of like, 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:36.920 it's not great, but it was. That's just kind of 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:39.400 how it was at the time. If you had parents 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.800 that were farmers, you're not gonna, you know, be just 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.599 hanging out until your sweet sixteenth birthday having a good time. 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.800 You're going to be working from a pretty young age. 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:53.240 And I found myself more and more thinking, like, you know, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.080 in certain situations that wasn't the worst thing. But then 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.520 you get to the industrial revolutions, and you know, that's 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:00.640 what things really got bad. 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:01.560 But kind of. 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.440 Early on, that's really what we were talking about, was 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.840 a lot of kids working on the farms, a lot 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.080 of boys working on the farm, girls working in the 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.120 house alongside their sisters and mom. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.640 And you know, this kind of started when they were 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:18.160 about thirteen years old. 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.279 They were sort of expected to either go work and 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.320 get a job and work full time, or to become 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.120 an apprentice and unpaid apprentice to work for food and 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:28.080 board and training. 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.800 And I think also in addition to that Protestant work 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:37.480 ethic of like just completely in the fabric of America 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.279 that was just coming out in you, it's also this 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.320 idea of like what else are you going to do? 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.120 It's not like you consider around and play video games 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.080 or watch TV or do almost anything else except just 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:49.599 play outside. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.799 But Chuck, I went back. 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.200 And looked to see if it was always this way, 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:59.120 and apparently in medieval England you played basically until you 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.080 hit puberty and then you started to get put to. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.400 Work when you hit puberty at four. 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.120 Right, more like fourteen. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.280 But like there was like a childhood and it seems 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.240 to have been somewhat wiped out by that Protestant work 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:17.040 ethic that the Puritans brought over, or at the very 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.280 least it was set back a little more, you know, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.520 age wise, where you started working, maybe a little sooner 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.360 than you would have had you been in medieval England 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:26.240 at the time. 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:28.840 Right, I think, I guess I'm just trying to draw 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:33.400 a line between life in the sixteen forties and then 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.640 life in nineteen thirty eight when we eventually did something 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:37.480 about it in the US. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.320 Yeah, no, totally, And there is an enormous distinction between that, 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.360 cause it was like widespread, but it just it seemed 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:46.440 like they were mostly working with their families and it 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.240 was just kind of the way that things were. 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:49.760 That was how life was. 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:52.440 But it will try and like keep your family alive. 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.480 It's not like, yeah, you know, they were trying to 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:57.760 just all survive basically. 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.000 Right, And that's actually the reason why it's still around 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.920 in other parts of the world today. It's not even 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.440 necessarily like a like a work ethic where children should 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.240 should work because idle hands are the devil's playthings. Like 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.560 the Puritans thought, it said, it's like this is an 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.200 extra worker. We can have go out and make money 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.280 to keep the rest of the family alive. We just 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.440 don't have a choice in not doing that. And that's 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:22.240 what drives it still today. 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:28.240 Right when the Industrial Revolution came around, and we're talking 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:32.840 about basically cotton factories in a big, big way, there 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:34.840 are a lot of little kids working there, and people 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:37.920 like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton thought that was awesome. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.439 They did, And like, we're going to be skewered for 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.640 even suggesting that Hamilton said this, but he did. He 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.800 said that women and children in America would be quote 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:53.520 rendered more useful by manufacturing establishments than they otherwise would be. 0:08:55.920 --> 0:09:00.600 And I think what you're saying is like I'm not 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.240 even going to paraphrase, what do you say? And I 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:04.880 think it's you can understand it on its face. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.040 Yeah, he's saying, well, you know, they're not doing much 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.360 use for us, these kids. And he's mainly talking about 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.320 kids here who would otherwite quote who would otherwise be idle. 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.000 This isn't Manuel Miranda saying this we all love him. 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.199 No, this isn't he didn't say this in a charming rap. 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:24.200 No, this is the real Alexander Hamilton. And again it 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.000 was just a different time. But even way back then, 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.400 in the early eighteen hundreds, not everyone thought this was 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.840 a great thing. There was a future mayor of Boston 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:42.120 named Josiah Quincy Joe Quimby, who toured a cotton factory, 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.720 a cotton spinning factory, and they had, you know, four 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.600 year olds working there all the way to ten, maybe 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.960 ten twelve hours a day for anywhere from twelve to 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:56.800 twenty five cents a day, not an hour. And he said, 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:01.680 compassion calls us to pity the little creatures plying in 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.000 a contracted room among flyers and cogs at an age 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:09.000 when nature requires for them air space and sports. There 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.720 was a dull dejection and the countenance of all of them. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.920 And you know, we'll get to some of these photos 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:18.120 as some of these kids later on. When you look 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:22.120 at them, they look like beaten down miniature adults. 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:27.319 Yeah, yeah, they really do. They look like us exactly. 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.360 They look ready to retire, they look unhappy, they look, yeah, 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:35.400 just beaten down. But their miniature and their kids, their children, 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.080 And it's really upsetting to see that a photograph of that, 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:40.880 I'm sure it's even more upsetting to see it in 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.600 real life. And that's actually how a lot of this, 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:47.800 a lot of change came through was just people being 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.840 exposed to seeing that and kind of being shocked, having 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:51.960 their conscience shocked. 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:53.720 But as. 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.720 Potentially like bad as it was for the children of 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:01.920 colonial America who were forced to work, it got way 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:05.120 way worse when the Second Industrial Revolution kicked off, the 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:09.079 one powered by steam and steel and railroads and little 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.480 hands and unbridled capitalism. When you inject unbridled capitalism into 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.560 an economy that allows for child labor, you can imagine 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.400 that things are going to get much much worse for 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.360 the children before it finally gets better. 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:23.720 That's right. 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.880 And things did get worse when you're when all of 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.520 a sudden you have a robust steel industry and coal 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.720 mining industry, you have railroads that need this stuff in 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:39.080 a big, big way, and they, you know, partially kind 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.240 of ran out of workers and partially just saw what 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.720 was right underneath their noses, which is these kids who 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:46.640 they at this point they had long known that they 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.680 could work and farm and work hard. So they said, 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.439 you know what, a lot of these families in rural America, 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:55.480 farming dried up a bit, so they moved to the city. 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.680 A lot of it was immigrant labor, as millions of 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.960 people came into the country from Europe fleeting their poverty, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.600 famine stricken countries, and no matter where they came from, 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.800 it was all under the thumb of the Robber Barons, 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.520 which was I can't remember when we did it, feels 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:15.760 like a few two or three years ago, but pretty 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:17.479 good podcast on the Robber Barons. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.720 Yeah, and we also talked about them in our book. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:24.080 We talked about Keeping Up with the Joneses. They played 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.280 a big role in that too. But yeah, so like 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:31.160 these the Robber Barons got rich through innovation, through consolidation, 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:33.920 through some pretty clever stuff. A lot of them invented 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:37.920 new techniques or processes or procedures, so like they definitely 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.760 were doing something, they were being productive, but they also 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.200 got to be filthy rich off of the backs of 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:52.440 immigrant labor, child labor that they directly exploited. And it 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:57.080 was basically like there was just nobody looking out for 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.640 anybody else at this time. It was just such a 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:05.160 pe read of such enormous economic insurgents that there weren't 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.960 there weren't anybody, or there wasn't anybody who was sitting 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:10.280 there saying like whoa, everybody, we need to stop and 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.040 really think about this and do this in a much 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.320 more directed, smarter, healthier way for our society. It was 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.160 like yeah, it was like just go go, let's see 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.280 where this takes us. And a lot of people got 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:25.160 trampled underfoot, and that definitely included children labors or child laborers. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.600 That's right, And I think that's a good time for 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:33.000 a break. Yeah, yay, that's two ya's any and a's 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.360 So we'll be back and we'll talk a little bit 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.320 about what some of these jobs might have been in 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:42.960 the late nineteenth century for these kids. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:14:09.960 Right after this, I wonder how many gallons of coffee 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.840 everyone who has listened to this this show since the 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:15.120 beginning has heard me drink. 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:18.959 I didn't even hear you drinking. 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.400 Oh you didn't. When I said I had a I 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:22.800 had a mouthful of cafe. 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:25.280 Oh interesting, we have no shirt on. 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:31.320 Nice. That's awesome, man, you just topped mine. 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.080 Said, that's true. I think you should have left a 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.480 mysterious Chuck, because there were a few people out there 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:42.560 who were about to email and say I was offended 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.520 that Chuck said he wasn't wearing a shirt. 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.280 Yeah, No, I put it on right before we recorded. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:48.040 I had it off. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:49.440 It's a little hot. 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:51.520 I felt like I needed to dress up. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.440 Put the T shirt right. You are you wearing one 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:56.520 of those tuxedo shirt shirt? 0:14:57.280 --> 0:14:58.840 Have you ever had one of those? Did you ever have? 0:14:59.240 --> 0:14:59.800 I didn't. 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:00.560 I didn't either. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.160 You didn't. You didn't wear them with your rainbow suspenders? 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:06.800 No, that's that stuff was a little too cute, see 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:07.480 even for me? 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:08.200 Gotcha? 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.680 Okay, what about the wine of those that looks like 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:13.680 I would wear it? 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:14.200 Okay? 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:16.720 What about one that looks like a like a ripped 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:18.359 like chest and abdomen? 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.040 Have you warr a T shirt like that? No? 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:22.200 Those are fun, though. 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:25.680 I think for certain people they're fun. They're also like 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.400 really good at boosting your ego quietly. 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.800 Sure, there's nothing like me looking in a mirror at 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.520 my beer belly covered in spray painted abs. 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:38.240 It really works your brain. 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:40.960 The brain is so dumb that it falls forward every 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:42.000 time I can attest. 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:44.840 All right, So we were going to talk about what 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:46.560 some of these jobs might be, and it kind of 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:51.600 really depended on where you were living. If you lived 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.440 in the city or if you lived in a company 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.360 town where they had these factories, you were going to 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.800 be working in factories. Flipped out in the rural areas, 0:15:58.840 --> 0:15:59.920 you can be working on farms. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.080 And most Americans still lived on farms at the time, 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.480 So yeah, most child labor took place on farms. 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.640 But if you were on that farm, you're gonna be 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.480 picking cotton and tobacco. You're gonna be picking a lot 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.400 of stuff and doing all the sort of stuff that 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:17.040 goes on. 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:22.360 After the picking, which is all that stuff shucking. 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:24.640 Good stuff. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.200 I did when I was a kid, we had a big, 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.240 big garden, and my mom took us to the cannery. 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:32.520 And it was awful. I hated it. 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.720 Took you to the cannery, like for a sight seeing 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.840 trip or for work to can. So like there was 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.360 a cannery that your mom went to. You guys had 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.120 so much stuff you had to go to a second 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:45.320 location to can it. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.200 That was a cannery and Decab County a sort of 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:54.240 industrial cannery for the people, okay, And we would take 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:59.480 green beans and corn and we made preserves and all 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.360 kinds off and they had like and you know, you 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:03.640 could can your own junk. 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:05.800 There. Sounds like it's like a lot of utopia. 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.320 And yeah, and we would you know, put sharpie like 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.480 beans on the can and Sharpie. 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.000 Put it in the bantry. Huh, that's really really interesting. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.600 I had no idea that there was a cannery into 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:18.400 Cab County. 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.199 Yeah, not too far from where I live now. Actually 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:22.760 it's like fifteen minutes away. 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:24.840 Probably do you shudder every time you pass it? 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:28.240 I do a little. Actually I don't pass it much. 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.359 But it's over near the dog pound where you can 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.359 go adopt a dog, and so I think we adopted 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:33.920 Nico there. 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:35.800 And I drove by the cannery and just like. 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.120 Yeah, I'll bet it was hot. 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:40.720 Well, you were lucky you weren't five or six and 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:42.879 left there to work all day every day. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:43.080 Aren't you? 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:45.080 Yes, you know, for almost no money. 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.720 Yeah, pennies for a bucket of whatever you shucked or 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:53.119 shelled or did whatever peeled. Yeah, working at a canary 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.800 would probably not have been very fun. They were also 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.080 furnace stoking jobs available, whether you wanted them or not. 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:01.640 What else, chuck? 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:06.200 Uh? Well, kids did work in canneries. They also worked 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.919 in textile mills. They had bobbin boys and bob and girls. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:10.760 This one doesn't sound so bad to me, but I'm 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.080 sure I'm missing something that makes it atrocious. 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.680 Well, I mean they would climb up on the machine 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.840 and remove the bobbins, the full bobbins, and replace them 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.439 with empty ones. So I don't think that was like 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.720 the worst job in the world. But when you're doing 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.080 that for ten or twelve hours a day and you're six, 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:30.080 it's probably a bit of a buzzkill. 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.480 Yeah. Yeah, I have a problem inherently with child labor 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.280 in general. Not any I mean, not like having a 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.359 job like you or I had first job. They've got 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.000 no problem with that, but child any kind of child labor, 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.280 even if it is kind of cush comparatively. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.800 No, I agree that one wasn't terrible. It may have 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:47.760 been dangerous, though I don't know. 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:51.280 There's no Yeah, there's no way it wasn't dangerous. It 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.000 had to have been dangerous. We're talking about the nineteenth 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.880 century and industry. It was dangerous in some way. There 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.680 was no osha, no knowing. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:01.520 If he was. 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.439 If you did live in the city and did work 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.800 around factories, you would do that. But there were also 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.960 plenty of other jobs you could deliver, like be essentially 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.040 they call them telegraph boys, sort of delivering you know, 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:20.639 emails basically by hand to people all over town. You 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.200 could shine shoes, you could sell newspapers like you did. 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:26.359 I didn't stand on a street corner. I was in 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:28.560 a Newsy which we'll talk a little more about Newsy's 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.000 in a second. I was a delivery boy, and not 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.840 a really great one either. I frequently overslappt and it 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.240 was not good at delivering papers. My mom and my 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.119 oldest sister would have to do my route once in 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:40.520 a while. 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.639 It's a bike deal, yes, okay. 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.119 And the thing is is like they also make you 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.520 shake down the people for their delinquent subscriptions. So I 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.120 was like a strong arm guy too for the Toledo 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:55.160 blade as well. 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:56.280 I want my two dollars. 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.000 Basically, that's exactly right, and that was right in my wheelhouse. 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.119 I was like, this hits a little too close to 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.520 home for me to laugh at the kid. I know 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.919 what he's going through. I've had to put my foot 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.560 in somebody's door before to get their two dollars. Didn't 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:11.359 ask for a dime. 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:14.240 I haven't seen that. 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:14.320 No. 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.960 While that was a good movie, yeah classic. 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.080 If you lived in the mountains of Appalachia, you might 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:24.239 have been a breaker boy or a mule handler, and 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.240 breaker boys will get I guess we can go ahead 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.840 and tell everyone what that is. Sure, you would sit 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:33.440 around and break apart lumps of coal into uniform pieces 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:34.120 all day. 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.480 Long, yep, and break dance on your brakes. 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:40.760 Yeah, breaker boys, But that was it. 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:42.560 And they wouldn't let you wear gloves while you were 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:44.919 a breaker boy too, because they're like, no, no, you 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.479 can't break these things as uniformly if you wear gloves, 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.680 you stupid kid. So you have to basically absorb all 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.400 of this coal dust into your skin, get all sorts 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.040 of little cuts and calluses and all that. By the 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.879 time you're six seven eight, Just do this. This is 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:02.680 your life. Now, Welcome to Pennsylvania. 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.760 Right then, Let's say you managed to escape all forms 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:10.919 of formal jobs your parents. They didn't make you go 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:12.919 to the factory. You did live in the city, so 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:14.960 you didn't have to work on a farm. And you 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.440 might think you just had it made in the shade. 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.159 Not so, because there was plenty of jobs that you 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.600 could do right there from your pretty little tenement apartment, 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.399 like weaving baskets or making paper flowers, or hand rolling 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:31.560 cigars and cigarettes all day long. 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:32.320 And selling them. 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:34.480 Yeah, it was like, you know, your whole family worked 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:36.359 on a farm, or if you lived in a tenement, 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:38.800 your whole family worked, you know, in what are called 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:42.760 tenement industries. So there was basically not a lot of escape. 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.040 I get the impression that you basically had to have 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:49.200 wealthy parents to not be forced into child labor at 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:49.639 the time. 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:52.639 Yeah, and I might have mentioned this once before. My 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.119 mom did a thing for a little while where we 0:21:56.240 --> 0:22:01.879 would make money doing like stuffing on beloepes. Did you 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:02.720 remember that stuff? 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:03.120 I do? 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:05.560 And I don't even remember what it was for. I 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:06.760 guess they were for companies. 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.040 Okay, I want to say Easter Seals had people do 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:14.359 that too, but I'm sure they didn't pay the paid. 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:16.800 So this would be like a company that would have 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:18.399 like a packet they would send out that had like 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.640 five things in it, and we would be responsible for 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:24.280 getting all that stuff in huge boxes, assembling at all 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:26.880 into the envelopes that they could mail, and we would 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:28.560 get paid as a family to do that. 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:32.000 That's cute. That's super late seventies early eighties. Like I 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.359 can see your mom talking on the princess phone making 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.240 all the arrangements for them to ship that tour and 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:39.680 getting the instructions, you know, and then hanging up in 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.800 that fifty foot long cord just kind of coils up 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:45.600 on its own, quietly on the floor. Yeah. 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:47.360 And I didn't mind that so much because I made 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:49.200 a little money and I could That's something I could 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:50.680 do while I watched television. 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:53.360 Yeah, totally, totally, which. 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:54.359 Is the perfect job, as we all know. 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:57.280 Yeah, not exactly a high pressure job. It sounds like 0:22:57.520 --> 0:22:59.720 I wouldn't even know if that qualifies as a tenement 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:01.240 into street to tell you the truth. 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:03.520 No, not in the nineteen seventies. 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:05.640 No, you had a lot of jobs though as a kid. 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:06.280 Good for you. 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:08.760 I always wanted my own money. 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:13.280 Protestant work ethic shining through like a city upon a hill. 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:15.040 Should we talk newsies? 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:16.320 Yeah we should. 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:20.639 And I think also the Newsy strike that we're gonna 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:24.320 mention deserves its own episode, at least, I shortly agree, 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:27.680 if not its own episode. Okay, so yeah, let's just 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:28.720 not talk about newsies. 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:30.640 No. 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:31.960 No, I thought the same thing, And the more I 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:34.199 got into the strike, I was like, this is just 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:34.600 too much. 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:35.520 We got to do something. 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:40.159 But the idea was that little boys would buy a 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:44.760 stack of newspapers wholesale for about fifty cents per one 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:45.760 hundred girls too. 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:47.040 I saw girls that did it too. 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:49.200 Oh, girls did it too, all right, and they sold 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:51.360 them for a penny apiece, so they would make half 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:55.399 a penny per paper selling in the big cities, especially 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:58.119 in New York City of course. And then eventually in 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:01.200 eighteen ninety nine they did go on strike, and it. 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:01.880 Was a big deal. 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:05.320 It kind of ground. I mean, it didn't grind them 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:09.439 to a complete halt, but it really disrupted their flow 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:11.800 and getting newspapers into the hands of people. 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:12.280 Dude. 0:24:12.400 --> 0:24:17.480 Their sales over this two week strike went down two thirds. Yeah, 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:22.399 Like they brought the they brought pulitzer, pulitzer and hearst 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:24.680 to their knees, basically, these newsies did. 0:24:24.960 --> 0:24:26.480 And they got some concessions too. 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:27.520 Yeah. 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:31.359 And I think the deal was is that mourning subscribers 0:24:31.400 --> 0:24:35.560 were generally subscribers, or the morning paper was generally for subscribers. 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:39.280 But it was that afternoon paper, that second edition that 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:41.679 the newsies really raked it in on because most people 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:45.240 didn't subscribe to that, and so they really weren't selling 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:49.000 any second editions hardly. And the one big concession they got, 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:52.879 which was huge was they got them to agree to 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:57.520 full buybacks on unsold papers, which is a really really 0:24:57.520 --> 0:24:58.000 big deal. 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:00.000 But it also really kind of goes to show you 0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:05.520 how much the newspaper barons believe Newsy's were scrappy enough 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:07.359 that they wouldn't just sit around and be like, I 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:09.280 don't have to sell these, you know, I don't have 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.560 to worry about this. You know, they'll be bought back anyway. 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:14.080 I don't have to work to sell them. 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:17.159 Well, but buyback just means they give them back the 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:20.400 money they paid for them. It's not like they would 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:24.320 make any money. They would just in fact, it incentivize them, 0:25:24.359 --> 0:25:27.200 I think, to take out more papers. Yeah, and sell 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:28.639 more papers because any of they wouldn't be. 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:29.120 Stuck with them. 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:32.160 Yeah, totally. We'll probably edit that part out. 0:25:35.200 --> 0:25:38.560 So one of the things you mentioned was making cigars 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:42.080 like in your family's one room apartment in say New. 0:25:42.000 --> 0:25:43.120 York or something like that. 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:49.320 Right, Yeah, that was apparently really bad in that not 0:25:49.359 --> 0:25:52.160 only did you work long hours for very little pay 0:25:52.160 --> 0:25:55.800 in cramped working conditions with your family, on top of 0:25:55.840 --> 0:26:00.000 everything else, you would frequently come down with nicotine poison. 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:03.320 As a little kid, because you're rolling cured sometimes you're 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:09.040 handling uncured tobacco, and you're ingesting lots of nicotine through 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:12.000 your skin at the like, you know, in a single day, 0:26:12.520 --> 0:26:14.879 and so you might be nauseated, you might be dizzy, 0:26:14.960 --> 0:26:18.000 you might just turn green. It can get worse than 0:26:18.040 --> 0:26:20.920 that too. You actually can suffer respiratory distress as well. 0:26:21.440 --> 0:26:24.040 And apparently this is a big problem still with child 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:28.360 laborers in Zimbabwe, because I think about twenty years ago 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:31.080 that country doubled down on their tobacco production and now 0:26:31.080 --> 0:26:35.720 it's like one of the biggest, the biggest exports of Zimbabwe, 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:39.239 but it's also a very poor country, so they use 0:26:39.359 --> 0:26:42.239 child labor a lot. And so children are still to 0:26:42.280 --> 0:26:46.760 this day being exposed to tobacco and they're rolling, they're 0:26:46.760 --> 0:26:51.400 handling tobacco, they're rolling stuff, they're rolling cigars, they're sorting it. 0:26:52.080 --> 0:26:54.439 They're just the kids in tobacco should not be in 0:26:54.480 --> 0:26:55.479 the same room together. 0:26:55.600 --> 0:26:56.119 Basically. 0:26:57.280 --> 0:26:59.879 Yeah, you know, it never occurred to me that that, 0:27:00.760 --> 0:27:03.880 I guess it would be a transdermal ingestion, right. 0:27:03.760 --> 0:27:06.359 Yeah, totally, but sure. 0:27:06.520 --> 0:27:08.480 I mean, you put tobacco on bee stings and all 0:27:08.520 --> 0:27:09.960 kinds of things, so of course it's going to get 0:27:09.960 --> 0:27:10.440 into their skin. 0:27:10.640 --> 0:27:13.760 Yeah, And having gotten myself sick on tobacco a time 0:27:13.880 --> 0:27:15.720 or two in my life, I can tell you it 0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:18.359 is not pleasant. And to do it against your will 0:27:18.480 --> 0:27:21.960 just because you're handling it for your job that you 0:27:21.960 --> 0:27:24.440 don't even want, is that sounds torturous? 0:27:24.480 --> 0:27:24.880 Actually? 0:27:25.640 --> 0:27:31.159 Yeah, I love that story. Should you retell it for 0:27:31.160 --> 0:27:32.000 people haven't heard it? 0:27:32.320 --> 0:27:34.280 Are you talking about eighth grade? In the tree fort? 0:27:35.119 --> 0:27:36.399 Is that when you'd like smoke a whole pack of 0:27:36.440 --> 0:27:37.240 cigarettes and got sick? 0:27:37.359 --> 0:27:38.639 It was more like a pack and a half. 0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:43.639 Okay, it was right after I first started smoking, and 0:27:43.720 --> 0:27:47.000 I was like, I was like, I really like how 0:27:47.040 --> 0:27:49.239 this makes me feel. Let's see how like thirty of 0:27:49.240 --> 0:27:52.080 these things make me feel. And I was seeing reading 0:27:52.280 --> 0:27:54.760 comic books up in the tree fort in the woods 0:27:54.880 --> 0:27:58.520 that my friends and I had built, and I just 0:27:58.560 --> 0:27:59.200 went too far. 0:27:59.400 --> 0:28:00.840 Man. I felt so. 0:28:01.080 --> 0:28:05.240 Bad, oh man, like green, Like I felt like I 0:28:05.280 --> 0:28:06.000 looked green. 0:28:06.119 --> 0:28:08.080 It was. It was bad news. 0:28:08.400 --> 0:28:10.480 That's one of those moments where you like, you really 0:28:10.520 --> 0:28:13.679 wish you could have like video footage. 0:28:13.480 --> 0:28:16.680 Kind of what I kind of hope. 0:28:16.520 --> 0:28:18.760 When when I die. It's a little bit like defending 0:28:18.800 --> 0:28:20.720 your life so they could. I'll be like, show me 0:28:20.760 --> 0:28:21.080 that one. 0:28:21.240 --> 0:28:23.160 We can go over the other stuff. I really want 0:28:23.200 --> 0:28:23.960 to see that clip. 0:28:24.280 --> 0:28:25.480 Yeah, rip torn will be there. 0:28:25.560 --> 0:28:26.320 Yeah. 0:28:26.400 --> 0:28:29.440 The upside of this, though, is do not ever start smoking. 0:28:29.520 --> 0:28:33.200 I deeply regret ever having started smoking as a kid. 0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:36.120 As an adult, it doesn't matter, Like, just don't ever 0:28:36.200 --> 0:28:38.200 start smoking and do yourself a real favor. 0:28:38.760 --> 0:28:40.960 You did a great job quitting, though, and you never 0:28:41.000 --> 0:28:43.240 look back. Nope, I didn't good job. 0:28:43.280 --> 0:28:43.600 It was. 0:28:43.720 --> 0:28:48.560 It was surprisingly easy because I was ing on one 0:28:48.600 --> 0:28:50.640 more thing. I think if there are people out there 0:28:50.640 --> 0:28:52.600 who are considering smoking right now and are worried about 0:28:52.640 --> 0:28:54.680 the time they're going to have, one of my big 0:28:54.680 --> 0:28:57.000 worries was that I was going to spend every day 0:28:57.040 --> 0:28:59.520 of the rest of my life wishing for a cigarette. 0:28:59.840 --> 0:29:02.000 And that's just not how it goes. Like. 0:29:02.040 --> 0:29:05.120 You spend a week, two weeks, if it's really bad, 0:29:05.160 --> 0:29:07.959 maybe three weeks really longing for a cigarette, and then 0:29:07.960 --> 0:29:10.480 it starts to get easier and easier, and then eventually 0:29:10.480 --> 0:29:13.200 you're grossed out by the thought of cigarettes and people 0:29:13.240 --> 0:29:15.880 smoking cigarettes around you, and you don't ever want to 0:29:15.920 --> 0:29:18.600 see one again. So if that's what's keeping you from quitting, 0:29:18.840 --> 0:29:20.320 don't let it, because that's not. 0:29:20.200 --> 0:29:24.160 How it is. I like that. Good PSA, thanks man, Thanks. 0:29:24.800 --> 0:29:26.720 I think before we break, maybe we'll just go over 0:29:26.800 --> 0:29:31.640 some of these final stats here at the basically the peak, 0:29:31.800 --> 0:29:36.600 and then about nineteen hundred, By eighteen ninety one out 0:29:36.600 --> 0:29:41.200 of every five kids under sixteen was working. One point 0:29:41.240 --> 0:29:46.200 seven million kids under sixteen was six percent of the 0:29:46.240 --> 0:29:50.520 total workforce in the nineteen hundred census. And that's just 0:29:51.480 --> 0:29:54.560 kids who were registered to work in these factories like 0:29:54.600 --> 0:29:57.520 that does not include these kids rolling cigars in their 0:29:57.520 --> 0:29:59.120 house or the kids on the family farm. 0:29:59.280 --> 0:30:01.120 So it was much much higher than that. 0:30:01.440 --> 0:30:05.400 Yeah, because I think two thirds of kids in general 0:30:05.600 --> 0:30:09.000 in the country worked in agriculture. So yeah, if they 0:30:09.040 --> 0:30:11.600 were not counting agriculture, they missed out on a lot 0:30:11.600 --> 0:30:14.200 of kids in that number. And that's still a staggering 0:30:14.280 --> 0:30:16.480 number in and of itself, one point seven million. 0:30:17.440 --> 0:30:17.640 Yeah. 0:30:17.640 --> 0:30:19.600 And if you're wondering back then, what affect this had 0:30:19.640 --> 0:30:23.880 on education, Just a snapshot from Philadelphia in nineteen hundred, 0:30:24.640 --> 0:30:28.360 fifteen percent of thirteen year old boys had left school 0:30:28.520 --> 0:30:32.680 to work. And I think half of fifteen year old 0:30:32.680 --> 0:30:35.440 boys were not in school anymore because they were working. 0:30:35.760 --> 0:30:39.400 Or like a significant portion because they were naughty. 0:30:39.920 --> 0:30:41.840 Right, yeah, they just didn't want to do anything. 0:30:41.880 --> 0:30:43.920 But get this, this is the staggering one to me. 0:30:44.920 --> 0:30:47.800 Seventeen year old boys, only ten percent of them were 0:30:47.880 --> 0:30:51.240 still in school in nineteen hundred in Philadelphia. That is, 0:30:51.400 --> 0:30:57.000 that does not bode well for the future of an economy. 0:30:57.440 --> 0:31:00.160 And I think that actually is one reason why like 0:31:00.320 --> 0:31:03.240 education became so much more compulsory, and one reason why 0:31:03.360 --> 0:31:06.720 people came around to anti child labor laws is the 0:31:06.800 --> 0:31:09.840 idea that no, there's a lot more that they could 0:31:09.840 --> 0:31:12.880 be doing than just working in a factory, almost literally 0:31:12.960 --> 0:31:15.320 their entire lives. Like, we can do we can do better, 0:31:15.400 --> 0:31:18.080 and we can build a better society and a better 0:31:18.160 --> 0:31:21.240 economy if we invest in their education instead of robbing 0:31:21.280 --> 0:31:21.680 them of it. 0:31:22.720 --> 0:31:24.520 All right, I guess we'll take a break and talk 0:31:24.520 --> 0:31:27.280 about when that started in earnest And it wasn't just 0:31:27.360 --> 0:31:28.280 then when you mentioned it. 0:31:53.800 --> 0:31:58.920 So, Chuck, it turns out that there were so the 0:31:59.000 --> 0:32:01.480 progressive eras one of my favorite errors, or I should 0:32:01.480 --> 0:32:03.440 say the people from the Progressive era are some of 0:32:03.480 --> 0:32:06.280 my favorite people like Francis Perkins, although she was a 0:32:06.480 --> 0:32:09.320 second or third wave progressive reformer, but she was inspired 0:32:09.320 --> 0:32:11.880 by some of these earlier ones who were working on 0:32:12.120 --> 0:32:17.560 things like fair wages like a minimum wage minimum or 0:32:17.720 --> 0:32:22.640 maximum work days or working hours. And then they also 0:32:22.760 --> 0:32:25.600 train their sights on things like ending child labor or 0:32:25.640 --> 0:32:29.920 at the very least really restricting the amount of work 0:32:29.960 --> 0:32:33.840 a kid could do, especially in regards to them being 0:32:33.920 --> 0:32:36.800 in school too. The idea was to put school first, 0:32:37.480 --> 0:32:39.920 and then if the kid had the wherewithal or their 0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:42.120 parents really needed the money or something like that, they 0:32:42.200 --> 0:32:45.240 could let them work in addition to school, but the 0:32:45.320 --> 0:32:46.720 school needed to come first. 0:32:47.080 --> 0:32:50.320 And this is really radical. I mean it seems radical. 0:32:50.360 --> 0:32:53.480 We had kids rolling cigars in their one room apartment 0:32:53.560 --> 0:32:56.200 in New York their whole lives, and now all of 0:32:56.200 --> 0:32:58.240 a sudden, some people are coming up and be like, no, no, no, 0:32:58.520 --> 0:33:02.160 kids should be in school and then preferably not working. 0:33:02.280 --> 0:33:03.560 So how do we make that happen? 0:33:04.680 --> 0:33:05.840 Yeah, it was a very big deal. 0:33:05.920 --> 0:33:08.360 And most of these are a lot of them were women, 0:33:08.520 --> 0:33:12.760 people like Jane Adams and Julia Lathrop and Lillian Ward 0:33:14.160 --> 0:33:17.720 anti poverty measures and this is stuff that you know. 0:33:17.920 --> 0:33:21.440 They would also go on to champion uh women's rights 0:33:21.480 --> 0:33:24.520 and women's rights in the workforce and women's rights to vote. 0:33:25.040 --> 0:33:26.480 So it was the whole progressive moment was. 0:33:26.520 --> 0:33:28.800 Kind of tied up in all these you know, radical 0:33:28.840 --> 0:33:32.240 ideas about you know, being fair and good, decent human beings. 0:33:32.520 --> 0:33:39.320 Right yeah, so, uh, here's the problem is, you've got 0:33:39.440 --> 0:33:41.880 these robber barons and these factory owners and then these 0:33:41.920 --> 0:33:44.840 industrialists who are like, wait a minute, we got a 0:33:44.880 --> 0:33:46.760 good deal going. Because we don't have to pay these 0:33:46.840 --> 0:33:49.760 kids much, they're probably not going to unionize. Like the 0:33:49.840 --> 0:33:54.040 Newsy's thing was definitely an anomaly. Yeah, that didn't happen much. 0:33:54.760 --> 0:33:57.560 And he said, they were like, we got a we 0:33:57.680 --> 0:33:59.840 got a good thing going, and uh so we're gonna 0:33:59.880 --> 0:34:01.360 lie be against this as hard as we can. 0:34:01.520 --> 0:34:04.160 But surely they were unsuccessful, right. 0:34:04.960 --> 0:34:07.440 No, they were successful. They did. 0:34:07.480 --> 0:34:10.200 They blocked a logic of legislation early on for this 0:34:10.320 --> 0:34:14.759 kind of regulation federally states. You know, it kind of 0:34:14.760 --> 0:34:17.919 depends on where it was, but states did establish child 0:34:18.000 --> 0:34:23.080 labor commissions and some states had some minimum ages, minimum 0:34:23.160 --> 0:34:25.320 or maximum hours and minimum wages. 0:34:25.600 --> 0:34:27.000 It was they were sparse. 0:34:27.080 --> 0:34:30.440 I couldn't find what states passed it, but for the 0:34:30.520 --> 0:34:34.000 most part that there was a probably for the most 0:34:34.040 --> 0:34:37.000 part though, there was a lot of pushback, and enough 0:34:37.080 --> 0:34:41.400 pushback among the states the residents of the states that 0:34:42.120 --> 0:34:45.360 not a lot got passed. So there was a progressive 0:34:45.440 --> 0:34:50.120 movement that started saying like the eighteen nineties, and it 0:34:50.360 --> 0:34:54.000 had to it basically like any progressive movement, it ran 0:34:54.080 --> 0:34:57.040 full steam ahead, hit a huge wall of industry and 0:34:57.200 --> 0:34:59.560 then had to slowly just keep pushing and pushing and 0:34:59.640 --> 0:35:01.520 chugging and chugging and keeping at it for a. 0:35:01.560 --> 0:35:03.400 Few decades before it was successful. 0:35:04.239 --> 0:35:06.239 And one of the ways that it became successful, or 0:35:06.320 --> 0:35:08.000 the way that it kept pushing at it after it 0:35:08.080 --> 0:35:11.520 hit that wall of industry is a group called the 0:35:11.600 --> 0:35:15.200 National Child Labor Committee formed and I think they formed 0:35:15.280 --> 0:35:18.240 in back in nineteen oh four, and they were basically 0:35:18.719 --> 0:35:21.560 they became a lobbying group to lobby against the lobbying 0:35:21.680 --> 0:35:25.800 against child labor laws that ended child labor. 0:35:26.440 --> 0:35:27.560 Yeah. Yeah. 0:35:27.560 --> 0:35:30.560 They had a pretty smart way to get attention, and 0:35:31.200 --> 0:35:33.839 that was in hiring a photographer named Lewis Hine, Yeah, 0:35:34.440 --> 0:35:38.040 to go around and sneakily document what was going on 0:35:38.200 --> 0:35:41.320 with his camera. He worked as a sociologist and a 0:35:41.360 --> 0:35:44.680 teacher and then later became a photographer. Was also a 0:35:44.719 --> 0:35:50.120 photographer and I think he himself was a kid who 0:35:50.320 --> 0:35:52.920 was working twelve thirteen hour days, so he was like, 0:35:53.080 --> 0:35:55.680 let me start taking pictures of these kids and maybe 0:35:55.800 --> 0:35:58.240 that because you know, that's worth a thousand words, they say. 0:35:58.280 --> 0:36:03.120 At least five thousand. Yeah, so that means that he 0:36:03.280 --> 0:36:04.840 took fifty thousand words. 0:36:06.719 --> 0:36:11.680 No, five five thousand, him just getting five hundred. No, 0:36:11.840 --> 0:36:16.440 I know that was totally wrong. It was purposefully wrong. Though. 0:36:16.520 --> 0:36:19.239 Let me just do that real quick, dude, to do 0:36:19.520 --> 0:36:24.680 carry the one. He took five million words. That's a 0:36:24.719 --> 0:36:27.240 lot of words. And if you go back, you've probably 0:36:27.239 --> 0:36:30.280 seen a bunch of these pictures. If you've seen pictures 0:36:30.440 --> 0:36:31.680 of very. 0:36:31.640 --> 0:36:34.560 Unhappy kids outside of a coal mine, or standing on 0:36:34.640 --> 0:36:39.720 the mountains of shucked oysters, or standing around factory machines 0:36:39.800 --> 0:36:43.120 like little men. Sure adults, they were probably Lewis Hines photos. 0:36:43.239 --> 0:36:46.000 Yeah, I mean five thousand photos, all archived in the 0:36:46.080 --> 0:36:50.080 Library of Congress from what I understand. And he had 0:36:50.160 --> 0:36:52.600 like a really great eye to begin with me, Like, 0:36:52.640 --> 0:36:55.800 they're really great photographs in and of themselves. But you know, 0:36:56.280 --> 0:36:58.279 you don't have to sit there and like, you know, 0:36:59.120 --> 0:37:02.520 try to really contemplated. It just hits you immediately. What 0:37:02.600 --> 0:37:04.960 you're looking at, and how sad what you're looking at is. 0:37:05.600 --> 0:37:08.480 And so he and the National Child Labor Committee got 0:37:08.520 --> 0:37:13.120 these into newspapers. And like you said, he was very sneaky. 0:37:13.360 --> 0:37:17.160 He would poses different things. One of them made sense 0:37:17.200 --> 0:37:21.960 to me. The industrial machinery photographer. Okay, yeah, got that. 0:37:22.640 --> 0:37:27.000 But what excuse would a Bible salesman have for taking 0:37:27.160 --> 0:37:29.960 photographs of the kids at the factory? 0:37:30.160 --> 0:37:31.279 I could not find that. 0:37:31.440 --> 0:37:32.439 Don't save my life. 0:37:33.120 --> 0:37:34.840 I mean, the only thing I could think is that 0:37:34.920 --> 0:37:37.920 got him in the door. And then maybe he was like, 0:37:38.120 --> 0:37:40.640 and I just love kids, and can I take some pictures? 0:37:40.680 --> 0:37:41.320 But I don't know. 0:37:41.600 --> 0:37:43.719 And this is a time before stranger danger, I guess. 0:37:43.800 --> 0:37:46.320 So they were like, sure, right, I mean they're child laborers. 0:37:46.320 --> 0:37:47.200 I don't care about them. 0:37:47.760 --> 0:37:47.960 Yeah. 0:37:48.040 --> 0:37:52.200 He also he wore a special jacket where he had 0:37:52.280 --> 0:37:55.600 the buttons on the jacket aligned in known measurements. So 0:37:56.400 --> 0:37:58.200 if he went over and stood like he would take 0:37:58.239 --> 0:38:00.359 a kid's picture, and he would ask, you know, they're 0:38:00.400 --> 0:38:03.359 documented like their names and their ages and stuff as 0:38:03.440 --> 0:38:06.120 best he could, but he would go stand next to 0:38:06.200 --> 0:38:08.360 them if he felt like he couldn't outright ask what 0:38:08.440 --> 0:38:10.919 their age was to kind of tip off that maybe 0:38:11.160 --> 0:38:14.239 he was not a Bible salesman, right, And you know, 0:38:14.320 --> 0:38:16.120 if the kid went up to the second or third button, 0:38:16.239 --> 0:38:19.040 he would know roughly how tall they were, or no, 0:38:19.080 --> 0:38:21.520 he would know how tall they were, then roughly how 0:38:21.600 --> 0:38:22.040 old they were. 0:38:22.760 --> 0:38:23.600 The other things were. 0:38:23.760 --> 0:38:26.799 Giants, right right, Yeah, I'm sure you know he didn't 0:38:26.840 --> 0:38:29.440 get them all right, but you know you can't win 0:38:29.520 --> 0:38:33.520 them all. But the other thing that made that jacket special, Chuck, 0:38:33.640 --> 0:38:35.800 was that the lining was made of a T shirt 0:38:35.880 --> 0:38:37.640 of a ripped chest and abdomen. 0:38:37.960 --> 0:38:40.400 And it would make him feel really good about himself 0:38:40.719 --> 0:38:42.200 when he put that jacket on. 0:38:44.200 --> 0:38:45.560 That's good, let's call it that. 0:38:47.360 --> 0:38:51.920 When did things finally change, though, well, they started to 0:38:52.000 --> 0:38:54.920 kind of change like these These pictures shocked the conscience 0:38:54.960 --> 0:38:56.680 of the nation when they when they saw them, when 0:38:56.680 --> 0:38:58.880 they made them into newspapers, and they were accompanied by 0:38:58.960 --> 0:39:01.920 Muckray getting article about how bad these conditions were. And 0:39:02.320 --> 0:39:04.520 you know, shame on you, America for turning a blind 0:39:04.560 --> 0:39:07.480 eye to this kind of thing. But it wasn't like 0:39:07.560 --> 0:39:11.000 an instantaneous switch was thrown. It still took decades. I 0:39:11.080 --> 0:39:17.200 think the first proposal for anti child labor legislation came 0:39:17.239 --> 0:39:23.120 in nineteen oh six. Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana was 0:39:23.200 --> 0:39:25.960 the first to propose. It got taken up in nineteen 0:39:26.040 --> 0:39:28.719 sixteen by the Keeting Act that was actually passed, but 0:39:28.840 --> 0:39:32.320 the Supreme Court shut it down, and then there was 0:39:32.400 --> 0:39:36.240 some more legislation that there was a constitutional amendment actually 0:39:36.560 --> 0:39:39.120 that got passed but wasn't ratified by the States, and 0:39:39.200 --> 0:39:42.000 then it wasn't until the Great Depression and the New 0:39:42.120 --> 0:39:44.480 Deal that it finally got passed. And I think if 0:39:44.520 --> 0:39:47.280 it were just the New Deal, it wouldn't have gotten passed. 0:39:47.680 --> 0:39:51.880 But the Great Depression changed things socially enough that it 0:39:52.040 --> 0:39:55.600 opened the door for an end to child labor in America. 0:39:56.320 --> 0:40:00.560 Yeah, Like, ironically, I think massive unemployment with so many 0:40:00.600 --> 0:40:02.800 adults out of work, they couldn't turn around and just 0:40:02.880 --> 0:40:06.160 hire kids to do these jobs for lower wages. It 0:40:06.320 --> 0:40:09.520 was I mean, even at a time when a bad 0:40:09.600 --> 0:40:12.600 look didn't really matter as much as it does today, 0:40:13.600 --> 0:40:15.799 they even knew that that was a really bad look 0:40:16.640 --> 0:40:18.600 and that they probably couldn't do something like that. So 0:40:19.960 --> 0:40:24.000 eventually the Fair Labor Standards Act of nineteen thirty eight. 0:40:24.960 --> 0:40:28.320 Thank you Francis Perkins or old Buddy that's right. Among others, 0:40:29.360 --> 0:40:32.799 this finally set a national minimum wage for the very 0:40:32.880 --> 0:40:37.040 first time, maximum number of hours for workers, and then 0:40:37.960 --> 0:40:42.240 child labor limitations, notably that if you are under sixteen, 0:40:42.400 --> 0:40:45.880 you cannot work in manufacturing, and you cannot work in 0:40:46.000 --> 0:40:49.120 coal mining at all because they're just too dangerous. Another 0:40:49.160 --> 0:40:52.480 couple of things it did. It established over time time 0:40:52.560 --> 0:40:55.200 and a half. Oh yeah, so if you went over 0:40:55.320 --> 0:40:57.440 forty hours a week, you could only work up to 0:40:57.560 --> 0:40:59.920 forty four, but you could work four hours at time 0:41:00.120 --> 0:41:03.840 and a half. And that very first minimum wage was 0:41:03.920 --> 0:41:07.680 twenty five cents an hour man nineteen thirty nine, I 0:41:07.719 --> 0:41:09.400 went up to thirty forty five, It went up to 0:41:09.480 --> 0:41:13.800 forty in nineteen fifty six. It finally reached a dollar 0:41:14.719 --> 0:41:18.880 kaching and it didn't crack six dollars until two thousand 0:41:18.880 --> 0:41:19.200 and eight. 0:41:19.800 --> 0:41:23.360 I know, dude, it's just shameful, isn't that nuts? We 0:41:23.560 --> 0:41:26.600 definitely need to do a minimum wage episode two because 0:41:26.640 --> 0:41:29.320 it's just not as cut and dried as Yeah, just 0:41:29.480 --> 0:41:33.400 raise a minimum wage, like there's just like there's a lot. 0:41:33.360 --> 0:41:35.000 To it, and I really want to do one on that. 0:41:35.400 --> 0:41:38.000 Yeah, I hadn't really kept up with it because I 0:41:38.440 --> 0:41:41.440 before I got salary jobs. I worked as a waiter 0:41:41.640 --> 0:41:46.040 for fifteen or twenty years or something, or as a 0:41:46.120 --> 0:41:49.840 PA on movie sets and TV sets, and that's not 0:41:50.000 --> 0:41:52.680 an hourly thing either. So like I hadn't had an 0:41:52.760 --> 0:41:56.640 hourly rate job since college, so I didn't really know, 0:41:57.000 --> 0:41:58.680 you know, kind of how it changed over the years. 0:41:58.719 --> 0:42:00.920 I did not know. It was two thousand and eight 0:42:00.960 --> 0:42:03.759 when they cracked six dollars. That's really low, it really is. 0:42:04.000 --> 0:42:07.319 It's very it's just not okay. And it's still at 0:42:07.400 --> 0:42:11.319 seven something right now it's seventy five. No, it's seven 0:42:11.360 --> 0:42:12.799 to twenty five, actually. 0:42:13.160 --> 0:42:13.480 I think it. 0:42:13.680 --> 0:42:16.120 Yeah, that's the national minimum wage, right. 0:42:16.560 --> 0:42:19.440 Yeah, again, some of the states are are raising stuff 0:42:19.760 --> 0:42:21.839 slowly but surely, but that's the federal one. 0:42:21.920 --> 0:42:22.160 Still. 0:42:22.520 --> 0:42:24.719 Well, this is Alabama doesn't have a minimum wage, is 0:42:24.760 --> 0:42:26.240 that right? Is that possible? 0:42:27.160 --> 0:42:28.479 Yeah, that's possible, man. 0:42:29.640 --> 0:42:31.160 You have to look into that. That's on the fly. 0:42:32.480 --> 0:42:33.600 So yeah, we'll do a. 0:42:33.600 --> 0:42:36.800 Whole one on minimum wage for sure coming up. But 0:42:37.840 --> 0:42:43.320 you said that The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed 0:42:43.360 --> 0:42:48.280 in nineteen thirty eight, and it's still basically governs child labor. 0:42:49.320 --> 0:42:51.080 And one of the things that it does, Chuck is 0:42:51.120 --> 0:42:56.600 it divides child labor into agricultural and non agricultural jobs. 0:42:57.120 --> 0:43:00.520 And with agriculture or non agricultural jobs, there's like a 0:43:00.760 --> 0:43:04.160 pretty decent amount of protections, like kids can't work in 0:43:04.280 --> 0:43:09.919 hazardous stuff until they're eighteen, things like blasting, mining, forest firefighting, 0:43:10.320 --> 0:43:14.400 that kind of stuff that if you're under sixteen, you 0:43:14.480 --> 0:43:17.000 can only work a maximum of three hours a day 0:43:17.080 --> 0:43:18.040 during the school year. 0:43:19.760 --> 0:43:22.319 There's some exemptions. Did you see the thing about home 0:43:22.360 --> 0:43:23.279 based wreathmaking. 0:43:24.000 --> 0:43:27.160 Yeah, so you cannot non agriculturally, you cannot work if 0:43:27.200 --> 0:43:29.040 you're under fourteen at all. Like I could not have 0:43:29.120 --> 0:43:33.040 worked as a bus boy at thirteen, supposedly, but I 0:43:33.160 --> 0:43:37.200 still did unless that was passed since then, because this 0:43:37.239 --> 0:43:41.120 thing's been ratified a million times or not ratified but amended. 0:43:42.080 --> 0:43:44.879 But yeah, if you're a child actor, you can work 0:43:44.880 --> 0:43:48.080 if you're under fourteen, obviously. If you're a newsy you 0:43:48.120 --> 0:43:50.320 can still deliver newspapers if you're under fourteen. 0:43:50.960 --> 0:43:53.680 And home based wreathmaker. 0:43:53.520 --> 0:43:56.200 Dude, it so weird. It is weird. 0:43:56.239 --> 0:43:59.280 And not only is it, home based wreathmaking is exempted 0:43:59.320 --> 0:44:02.000 from childlabor laws in the United States. It has to 0:44:02.080 --> 0:44:04.320 be a specific kind of reath that has to be 0:44:04.520 --> 0:44:09.000 mostly evergreen wreaths. Wow, So if you're making wreaths and 0:44:09.080 --> 0:44:11.040 it has to be at home, if you're having your 0:44:11.120 --> 0:44:14.960 kid make reads at home and they're not mostly evergreen, 0:44:15.440 --> 0:44:18.960 that's illegal. And if they're making things out of evergreen 0:44:19.000 --> 0:44:23.240 that are not wreaths, like say garland, that's illegal, specifically 0:44:24.480 --> 0:44:27.160 homemade wreaths that are mostly evergreen. 0:44:27.560 --> 0:44:28.880 It's really really interesting. 0:44:29.120 --> 0:44:31.200 It's one of the most bizarre facts we've ever talked 0:44:31.239 --> 0:44:32.240 about on this episode. 0:44:32.320 --> 0:44:34.239 Yeah show, Yeah, for sure, to keep that one in 0:44:34.320 --> 0:44:35.920 my pocket totally. 0:44:36.360 --> 0:44:40.680 But agricultural though, they have like very little protection, like 0:44:40.760 --> 0:44:42.719 almost shamefully little protections. 0:44:43.200 --> 0:44:45.640 Yeah, if you're sixteen years old and you live on 0:44:45.719 --> 0:44:49.399 your family farm, they can work you. There's no living 0:44:49.440 --> 0:44:51.680 on how many hours they can work you. You can 0:44:51.760 --> 0:44:55.200 work jobs that the Department of Labor considers hazardous. I 0:44:55.280 --> 0:44:58.520 think fourteen year olds also can work unlimited hours if 0:44:58.560 --> 0:45:01.480 it's outside the school day, and then the kids as 0:45:01.520 --> 0:45:05.920 young as twelve I think actually twelve and younger can 0:45:06.040 --> 0:45:07.360 work with parental consent. 0:45:08.640 --> 0:45:08.839 Yeah. 0:45:09.960 --> 0:45:13.640 Yeah, basically unlimited hours or at least up to seventy 0:45:13.719 --> 0:45:15.960 two hours, and that's during the school year as well. 0:45:16.640 --> 0:45:19.239 And as a result of this, fifty five percent of 0:45:19.360 --> 0:45:23.800 child farm workers graduate from high school here in you know, 0:45:24.719 --> 0:45:26.399 the twenty ish. 0:45:26.960 --> 0:45:28.800 Yeah, in the United States we're talking about, and the 0:45:28.800 --> 0:45:30.879 one hundred thousand of them are injured on the job 0:45:31.000 --> 0:45:33.360 every year, child farm laborers. 0:45:33.719 --> 0:45:35.400 Yeah, and a lot of trying to get all this changed. 0:45:35.920 --> 0:45:38.600 Yeah, they're basically saying, like, look, just take these things 0:45:38.640 --> 0:45:41.279 that we apply to non agricultural jobs and apply it 0:45:41.320 --> 0:45:44.279 to agricultural problems solved, and that would solve a lot 0:45:44.320 --> 0:45:46.000 of problems. I'm sure it would create a lot of 0:45:46.040 --> 0:45:48.000 problems that you and I are unaware of, not being 0:45:48.120 --> 0:45:50.880 farm folk, but it would solve a lot of the 0:45:51.480 --> 0:45:54.560 child labor problems that child labor activists have issues with. 0:45:55.160 --> 0:45:56.440 It would do nothing for the. 0:45:58.160 --> 0:46:02.640 Much more rampant problems that are endemic around the world 0:46:03.160 --> 0:46:06.360 with child labor, where a lot of it resembles basically 0:46:07.200 --> 0:46:09.520 how America was with child labor at the at the 0:46:09.680 --> 0:46:11.200 you know, during the Gilded Age. 0:46:11.920 --> 0:46:16.240 Yeah, one hundred and fifty eight million kids are estimated 0:46:16.280 --> 0:46:18.440 to be the victims of child labor around the world. 0:46:19.360 --> 0:46:21.919 The good news is that's down thirty percent from twenty 0:46:22.000 --> 0:46:25.920 years ago. But the bad news is is that's a 0:46:26.000 --> 0:46:29.520 lot of kids, and I think seventy one percent of 0:46:29.560 --> 0:46:33.920 those are in agriculture, harvesting, fishing, herding, stuff like that. 0:46:34.880 --> 0:46:36.879 But there are a lot of kids around the world 0:46:36.920 --> 0:46:38.640 that still like work in coal mines. 0:46:39.280 --> 0:46:43.360 Yeah, like that's too narrow for an adult, it's too dangerous. 0:46:43.400 --> 0:46:46.279 You go in there and do it instead, and they'll 0:46:46.320 --> 0:46:48.800 work with like they'll work at wildcat gold mines, so 0:46:48.880 --> 0:46:51.399 they're having to like separate gold with mercury. So they're 0:46:51.440 --> 0:46:54.400 getting mercury poisoning at a young age, which really messes 0:46:54.440 --> 0:46:59.200 with you developmentally. On tobacco farms and places like Zimbabwe, 0:46:59.400 --> 0:47:02.040 not only are are they having to get you know, 0:47:02.200 --> 0:47:07.600 nicotine poisoning, they're also being poisoned by toxic pesticides that 0:47:07.680 --> 0:47:10.200 are used on the crops and stuff too. So like 0:47:11.000 --> 0:47:14.880 these kids are working in like deplorable working conditions, and 0:47:16.560 --> 0:47:19.600 there's just some really basic stuff that needs to. 0:47:19.760 --> 0:47:23.000 Change that would just free the children of the world 0:47:23.360 --> 0:47:29.000 the world around from what is essentially like indentured servitude 0:47:29.080 --> 0:47:29.359 right now. 0:47:30.000 --> 0:47:31.800 Yeah, and there's four kind of basic things that the 0:47:31.880 --> 0:47:35.800 ILO says we can do around the country. And like 0:47:35.880 --> 0:47:37.920 you said at the very beginning, they're very pragmatic. They 0:47:37.920 --> 0:47:40.600 all make sense and they would really make a difference. 0:47:40.800 --> 0:47:45.879 And the first is expand access to education. Get kids 0:47:45.960 --> 0:47:49.400 in school and get rid of fees to be in 0:47:49.520 --> 0:47:54.240 school and put them. If they're in a school situation, 0:47:54.320 --> 0:47:56.200 they're way less likely to join the workforce. 0:47:56.760 --> 0:47:58.400 That's what our friends at COED do. 0:47:58.560 --> 0:48:01.239 They're like helping get kids off of family farms and 0:48:01.360 --> 0:48:05.520 into schools by removing any barriers between them in school. 0:48:05.880 --> 0:48:08.800 Yep, it's all through education. It's a great, great organization. 0:48:09.280 --> 0:48:09.480 Yeap. 0:48:10.320 --> 0:48:13.680 What else And that's, by the way, the cooperative I 0:48:13.719 --> 0:48:17.160 always say that word wrong, Cooperative for Education. 0:48:17.840 --> 0:48:18.719 Yeah, look them up. 0:48:18.719 --> 0:48:21.640 We've championed them for years and we got a little 0:48:22.360 --> 0:48:23.960 fun thing coming up that we're dealing with them that 0:48:24.040 --> 0:48:26.719 you guys might be interested in, So stay tuned for that. Yeah, 0:48:27.640 --> 0:48:29.560 let me see what's the next one? Help families meet 0:48:29.640 --> 0:48:33.600 basic needs. This could be a universal basic income, it 0:48:33.640 --> 0:48:37.360 could be monthly stipend, but basically so families don't have 0:48:37.480 --> 0:48:40.200 to send their kids out to works to provide at 0:48:40.239 --> 0:48:41.399 the most basic level. 0:48:41.920 --> 0:48:42.120 Yeah. 0:48:42.200 --> 0:48:43.960 And a way that you can help that is through 0:48:44.120 --> 0:48:48.440 Kiva by blending making micro loans to people so that 0:48:48.560 --> 0:48:52.080 they can they have the capital to grow from Initially. 0:48:53.360 --> 0:48:56.359 There's also like, if you make sure that adults are 0:48:56.400 --> 0:49:00.520 getting better wages and pay and their rights are protected, 0:49:01.040 --> 0:49:03.759 it makes their children less likely to be forced into 0:49:03.800 --> 0:49:06.680 the workplace to begin with, because it's not again, there's 0:49:06.719 --> 0:49:09.920 not like adults the world round saying, you know, our 0:49:10.000 --> 0:49:12.359 kids need to be working because they're lazy, Like their 0:49:12.440 --> 0:49:15.160 kids need to be working because the adults aren't getting 0:49:15.200 --> 0:49:19.239 paid enough. And if you make sure that you're you know, 0:49:19.520 --> 0:49:21.719 if you're a Western company and you make sure that 0:49:21.840 --> 0:49:25.800 you're paying everybody a fair wage, there's a good chance 0:49:25.880 --> 0:49:29.080 that you can eradicate child labor from your supply chain. 0:49:29.440 --> 0:49:33.360 Yeah, and then the last thing is just enforcement. 0:49:34.040 --> 0:49:35.719 They can put all the laws that they want on 0:49:35.760 --> 0:49:38.920 the books, but unless someone's gonna actually work on enforcement, 0:49:39.040 --> 0:49:42.680 then it really doesn't matter much. So that's really sort 0:49:42.719 --> 0:49:46.600 of the last step is funding for enforcement. 0:49:47.160 --> 0:49:50.040 Yeah, and Germany actually just passed the law recently that 0:49:50.560 --> 0:49:55.400 demands that it's companies examine do due diligence and examine 0:49:55.400 --> 0:49:58.920 their supply chains to see if there's child labor involved 0:49:58.960 --> 0:50:00.880 in to do something about it. That doesn't have like 0:50:00.920 --> 0:50:03.080 as much teeth as Human Rights Watch was saying that 0:50:03.160 --> 0:50:05.080 they wish it had but it's a good first step 0:50:05.160 --> 0:50:08.839 and hopefully the way that you know, progressive nations will 0:50:08.840 --> 0:50:09.399 start moving. 0:50:09.760 --> 0:50:13.680 That's right. Two things, big shout out. I can't remember 0:50:14.320 --> 0:50:17.160 his name, but the young listener who was mowing the 0:50:17.280 --> 0:50:19.000 lawn for his dad and wrote in. 0:50:19.040 --> 0:50:21.320 To request this episode, I think, oh, that's right. I 0:50:21.360 --> 0:50:24.239 think he prompted this episode. So hats off to you, 0:50:24.400 --> 0:50:27.080 young sir. I hope you can kick up your heels 0:50:27.080 --> 0:50:29.560 for a little while. And then also, this was indeed 0:50:29.600 --> 0:50:32.600 a Dave Ruse joint, so thanks again to Dave for 0:50:32.719 --> 0:50:33.080 this one. 0:50:34.440 --> 0:50:35.440 Right, that's right. 0:50:36.160 --> 0:50:38.239 Since Chuck said that's right, everybody means it's time for 0:50:38.400 --> 0:50:42.200 listener mayl. I'm gonna call this. 0:50:43.160 --> 0:50:46.640 I think it's just thanks. Hey, guys. Running in from Louisville, Kentucky, 0:50:46.680 --> 0:50:47.200 Do said I much. 0:50:47.200 --> 0:50:50.440 I love the show. Even though Josh said the KFCM 0:50:50.640 --> 0:50:54.279 center was in Lexington, I'll never live that down. Your 0:50:54.320 --> 0:50:56.759 correction put a smile on my face. Knowing that there 0:50:56.800 --> 0:50:59.040 are other stuff you should know fans near me. I 0:50:59.120 --> 0:51:00.920 work in long term care and use your podcast in 0:51:00.960 --> 0:51:04.080 many different ways. I help people with cognitive impairments. Set 0:51:04.160 --> 0:51:08.280 up their tablets and such for enrichment, socialization, and stimulation, 0:51:08.760 --> 0:51:10.480 and one of the first activities I show them is 0:51:10.480 --> 0:51:14.239 how to access entertainment. With the educational podcast, everyone can 0:51:14.280 --> 0:51:15.960 find something they want to learn about on Stuff you 0:51:15.960 --> 0:51:18.760 Should Know. I also help people find ways of remembering 0:51:18.800 --> 0:51:22.239 new information and use your short stuff episodes for those 0:51:22.280 --> 0:51:26.120 with shorter attention spans. And finally, my own enjoyment is 0:51:26.200 --> 0:51:28.640 a factor. I listened to many different podcasts during my 0:51:28.719 --> 0:51:30.840 drive to and from work, but only Stuff you Should 0:51:30.840 --> 0:51:33.880 Know has the ability to get me into a different headspace. 0:51:34.640 --> 0:51:36.920 I attribute that to Josh and Chuck. None of these 0:51:36.960 --> 0:51:39.520 topics would be nearly as interesting without you, guys. I've 0:51:39.560 --> 0:51:42.960 cried and laughed sometimes both all in all of your episodes, 0:51:43.360 --> 0:51:44.800 even the really mathy ones. 0:51:47.000 --> 0:51:49.399 I feel you on that one, Chuck and Josh. 0:51:50.719 --> 0:51:52.319 Yeah, Oh that was a dig. 0:51:52.920 --> 0:51:55.080 Wasn't a dig? Be you math guy? 0:51:56.160 --> 0:51:59.359 No? No, but I'd like to think I am okay. 0:51:59.440 --> 0:51:59.960 Sorry about that. 0:52:00.840 --> 0:52:02.920 The episode on snake handling is a personal favorite. I 0:52:02.920 --> 0:52:04.640 appreciate an episode. I love the show and everyone that 0:52:04.680 --> 0:52:06.759 works on it. Thanks for keeping it going. I hope 0:52:06.800 --> 0:52:09.160 see y'all in Kentucky. That is from Ellie. 0:52:09.560 --> 0:52:12.719 Well, thanks again, Ellie, And if you want to get 0:52:12.760 --> 0:52:14.879 in touch with this, like Ellie did, you can write 0:52:14.960 --> 0:52:18.080 us an email send it off to stuff podcast at 0:52:18.120 --> 0:52:19.440 iHeartRadio dot com. 0:52:22.760 --> 0:52:25.600 Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 0:52:25.760 --> 0:52:29.880 more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:52:30.040 --> 0:52:31.840 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.