Linda F.

Mechanical Turk was originally a way for people all over the world, and in poor countries in particular, to make small amounts of money easily. By 2011, there were workers in 190 countries. Because a mastery of English is necessary, at some point Amazon started taking only American applications. (If anyone knows when the change was made, let us know in your review.)

Because workers are independent contractors, i. E. self-employed, the US minimum wage law doesn't apply. So there's no Turk in Third World countries, where a few dollars can be meaningful income, while Americans create all sorts of ways to be successful at working for pennies. That's the irony.