capitalism v. paperboys, then and now

A 13-year-old paperboy in Bedfordshire who takes home £6.53 a week could have been one of the youngest people in the UK to be offered a redundancy package.

Kane Middleton received a formal letter which told him he was being laid off from his round in Clophill.

It outlined a redundancy package of "one week's pay in lieu of notice, which equates to £6.93 (subject to tax and NI)".

His employer, Letterbox Direct, was unavailable for comment.

Kane said he began his round two months ago to buy treats and a new cage for his hamster, Splodge.

Speaking about receiving the letter, he said: "I got this piece of paper and I didn't really understand all the words.

"I asked my mum and she told me I had been made redundant.

"I felt annoyed and upset."

His mother Jocelyn said she was disappointed that her son had received an "impersonal" letter.

Hawking newspapers in the 19th century was hard work. Rather than working for the newspaper itself, a newsboy—usually a kid or young teen from a poor family, often homeless himself—had to buy copies of the paper from the publisher, then sell them independently.

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In 1899, the Evening World and Evening Journal started charging newsboys 60 cents for a hundred copies of their papers, a hike from 50 cents. Pissed off, thousands of newsboys went on strike. They held protests all over Manhattan and got into fights with men and boys hired by the papers as replacement workers.

But the strike worked. After a few weeks of gloating media coverage in other New York City papers, the publishers scaled back the price hike.