Some of the earliest jobs I held were in the fruit industry--picking apples and peaches here in Michigan, back when the minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. I bought my first car from the money I saved up, as did a number of my teenage friends. Those jobs are no longer available to American teenagers, even those willing to be paid under the table for less than the current minimum wage. I also worked as a maid, weekends, my senior year in high school. I tried to get a job as a maid here in Lansing after my first child was born--I needed a job with unconventional hours and hotel/motel work offers a number of such jobs. Even with experience I didn't have a chance. All of those jobs are done by illegals around here. We sold our car to make ends meet. It was either that or daycare for our infant so I could go back to a regular job.
Sure hope you don't mind my dragging an economic reality into the discussion.
And you know that these jobs aren't availiable now to American teenagers how?
Or could it be you do not want to face the fact that modern American teenagers don't want these jobs.
BTW, I lived a comfortable life as as a child but I still took a job as a busboy(and that was a disgusting job, people are pigs at restaurants) at 16, because that is what my peers were doing at the time.
Today's precious progengy of the baby boomer generation look down at such things, so before you go bashing people doing the actual dirty jobs, maybe you should look in the mirror.