Part of it is a side-effect fo the two income paradigm, where parents substitute money or material goods for time spent with their kids.
We took pride in being able to work hard. The perks of responsibility were more responsibility, but that meant you were driving the tractor (at 8) running a bulldozer (at 10), hunting deer ( at 9), had your own boat (just a skiff, but a boat, at 10), and a bunch of stuff which laws have basically shut down since, but for us were part and parcel of the great rites of passage to manhood.
Because there is no cultural emphasis on self-respect, and because the law also hobbles the development of those who would be responsible and capable, you get a small fraction left who would jump at the chance, and a bunch who would rather water ski or fish on a video game than do the real thing.
The kids you get who are willing to work will likely be shakers and movers and the achievers of their generation. Some of the rest may develop later, but the former will be the core.
Work 'em, pay 'em, praise them when they do well, mentor them.
As for the ones who won't work, well at least they can add a reason to do well in school so they can get a soft job in out of the sun...or not and haunt their parent's basement and hang out on DU...
Maybe if you presented it as a chance to lose weight, increase muscle tone, increase stamina, and make money, too...
It's pretty tough to mentor a kid who politely approaches you for work, then won't listen when you try to correct him on mistakes he makes. This most recent kid, instead of listening, decided it would be a better idea to flip me off and tell me to go f*ck myself, all because I pointed out some spots he missed with the weed eater. I fault the parents more than I fault the kid in this incidence. Clearly, this kid has had little or no home training.
You are right, though, it's a different era. If I'd have hired on with a neighbor when I was a kid, then quit two days later, my father would have dealt with me in his own way. He would have sought out the person who hired me to find out what happened. My father didn't tolerate quitters, cheats or liars. My father also would never have let me back talking an adult slide, much less tolerate a kid actually having the audacity to spew vulgarities at an adult. If this kid had been me at 13 I wouldn't have been sitting down for a while.
I predict that this kid's parents will be bailing him out of jail in the not too distant future......