Harvest Of Dignity Documentary Summary

I watched a documentary called “Living on Minimum Wage” in the series Thirty Days. In the series Thirty Days, a man named Morgan Spurlock puts himself into certain situations to experience the problems some Americans face everyday. Mr. Spurlock decided to live off of minimum wage in the state of Ohio. The minimum wage in Ohio now is $8.10 per hour, but in 2005, when the episode was filmed, the minimum wage was $5.15 per hour. He started off with one week worth minimum wage ($300). Morgan and his girlfriend were not allowed to use any credit cards or money they earned before the episode. Morgan got a job in construction that paid a little better than the temp agency was offering him. His girlfriend got a job at a coffee shop. They rented an apartment that is in a low income area with minimum furniture. Morgan ended up getting seriously hurt at work and needed to go to the emergency room. His bills were three months worth of his salary, so Morgan Spurlock ended the episode in debt. This is an issue if this is someone’s real life. Those people have to live penny to penny for food, water, and a place to sleep. No one should struggle for their survival needs. The debate on minimum wage should be brought to everyone’s attention. Americans, obviously, can not live off of the

In Florence Kelley’s speech, through her use of parallel structure and detailed description to describe the conditions of child labor, anecdotes that relay its prominence, appeals to emotion and motherhood, she conveys an effective message that child labor is unjust.

Farm and ranch working has always been around and cheaply available by, migrant workers during the Great Depression and now with immigrants trying to get hired at the farms. Now while the times of both are different with migrant workers existing around the 1930s and the modern immigrants from Mexico, both jobs they get hired at show many similarities. In farms from the 1930s they often picked up desperate workers for cheap pay, as for now it isn't much different. Immigrants who successfully crossed the Mexican borders without getting caught by border control are often hired at farms and ranches. With the measly pay the immigrants receive, the can hardly afford paying a babysitter to care for their children. Back in the Great Depression most

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck depicts actual historic settings. The settings within the novel are the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the effects of the Dust Bowl on the Midwest. Thousands of families became homeless, causing them to travel to the West in hopes to receive a job. During this difficult time, the Joad family traveled and, at times, lived in the family car. Once they arrived in California, they also had to endure such hardships as staying in the Hooverville Camp as well as the Weed Patch Camp.

Being an American teenager in today's society is the definition of fear. The fear of fitting in, being pretty enough, having enough friends, and having money. As an American teenagers, we see the world as a political scene that will soon turn good into destruction. We also see the world as an ocean full of opportunity. We can work towards anything and achieve any goal with the right mindset and the determination. In our hearts we cherish family and friendships that could last a lifetime. We crave the ability to succeed in every aspect of life. We crave money overcoming the obstacles in life, to further our knowledge and become the best we can be. Along with success coming failure; but as teens we try to prove ourselves by brushing off the idea

Migrant farm workers are individuals who enter the United State or any other country illegally or legally to work in agriculture farms. Most of these farm workers are temporary and some are seasonal workers. There are many issues and challenges facing migrant workers. Migrant farm workers must survive many challenging conditions so that American can have the best selection of all the fresh foods found in farms. My grandfather was an immigrant that migrated from Yemen in 1970 and was working in a farm in Fresno CA. He was a grape farmer working from 6 am to 7 pm almost more than 13-hours a day his salary was $2.56 an hour from that salary he had to support his family that was still living in Yemen. Many migrant farm workers who pick these fruits travel across the country and cross borders to fill the agriculture jobs in the U.S that U.S citizens are not willing to take. (McKenzie, 2015). Agriculture jobs is not an easy job, but these migrant farmworkers are willing to fill these physical exhausting jobs because of the economic hardship, and the lack of jobs in the there country, therefore, courtiers that have these immigrant farmworkers should recognize immigrants for their hard work.

“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.” This quote by Grace Abbott explains why we need to stand up against child labor. Although many people think that children these days need to work more and have life handed to them, this was not always the case. Children during the industrial revolution were being forced to work long hours in terrible conditions with little to no pay. They were discriminated against in many ways, held protests, and created many opportunities for future generations.

The McFarland community is widely made up of poor farmers who pick fields day and night in extreme weather conditions for minimum wage. Further, the runners also help their parents pick crops from a young age while also attending school. Coach White is astonished when he comes to know that they do not pay the farmers “by the hour. [They] get paid by the field.” (McFarland USA). Tyson describes how proletariats “suffer the ills of economic privation, are hardest hit by economic recessions, and have limited means of improving their lot” (Tyson 55). McFarland farmers are cheated by the upper-class who pay minimal to the labor class and gain an enormous profit out of

The multifaceted issue of racism has been intensely explored by many, but it is Will Allen’s The Good Food Revolution that draws a staggering connection between discrimination and the United States’ obesity epidemic, offering solutions that tackle both monstrosities at once. Allen’s belief that access to locally grown produce should be a basic right stems from years of witnessing that right being strategically denied to the urban poor. The spread of chain business and the reduction of farms has created a crisis that Allen’s company Growing Power seeks to rectify. These claims are not only supported by the evidence presented by Allen in his experience, but also by circumstances in the reader’s life that mirrors what is described. It is unnerving to realize the after how far the United States has come, inequality is still being served at the dinner table.

At this point in time, the Great Depression was in full effect and the Dust Bowl had just occurred and actually created an entirely new wave of migrant farm workers. Lands in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas were destroyed causing its people to move westward towards California, the land of opportunity, and achieve the American dream; which essentially was to make lots of money and live a comfortable lifestyle. All in all, it was the federal government’s duty to do more to help those in need.

Today when people think of child labor, they think of it as wrong and wonder who would make children difficult, laborious tasks. They wonder why some people did not try to stop it. Florence Kelley did try to convince people to end child labor. In her speech at the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she conveys her disdain for child labor by appealing to logos and pathos.

My grandfather grew up playing a variety of sports, went into the marines, and was the captain of a police department in Connecticut. He would best be defined as a tough guy. He gave me characteristics that would best define what makes a tough guy. He used words such as control, independent, tough, powerful, and strong. These are characteristic that consist with what was given in the movie Tough Guise. He explained to if men didn’t find these characteristics that were looked at negatively and received a lot of backlash for this. He gave multiple examples from when he was in the marines. If men weren’t able to complete a task, had emotional breakdowns, or struggled they were called names and made fun of just

In the book Breadgivers there seems to be an issue on how women are looked upon in the society. It is very interesting how Reb Smolinsky, the father, viewed women and their roles in not only in the society but in the family. Sara Smolinsky, the main character, struggles as a female in her family and society on many different levels. Information from chapter 18 of Documents for America’s History and information in chapter 18 of Give Me Liberty will help support my claims.

Sanjiri is a 10yr old boy from India who has been working for 2 yrs now gathering crops. Sanjiri has never attended any school because his family needs him to work so he could help financially. All over the world for centuries now we have children just like Sanjiri, who cannot attend school because they come from families who are very poor. Not only does child labor apply to those children who are working in factories or in agriculture but also to girls who are taken as wives or for prostitution and boys who are taken as soldiers. Around the world there is about 168 million children employed, according to the international Labour Organization. These children must work instead of getting and education

In the essay 'Working at McDonalds' the writer Etzioni has expressed his opinion about teen employment and specifically those who are working at some fast food restaurants like McDonalds. The writer has stressed on the negative outcomes of teenagers working at fast food restaurants. He says that the parents need to understand that teen employment is not always the solution for them to free themselves of the responsibility to pay for their child's college education. By using the metaphor of delivering newspaper in relation to teens working at McDonalds, the writer claims that there is more to their abilities than just working at some fast food restaurant. He says that when teenagers see themselves earning money and getting hold of their