Posted on 05/17/2010 5:08:38 AM PDT by Bad~Rodeo
I would guess that "significant share of the decline", is laziness, selfishness, and the "Mom Buy me that!" attitude I see in so many young people. ( My 14 year old daughter pointed this out to me. )
I don’t know, I’m with the kids on this one. Plenty of time to lose your job to cheap foreign labor when they become adults. Why rush it?
My 16yo wants to work and has already started looking for a summer job. The pickings are slim
When I was fourteen, I loaded trucks for North American Van Lines. You couldn't do that today.
“When I was fourteen, I loaded trucks for North American Van Lines. You couldn’t do that today”
________________________________________________
That’s true. My sister worked for UPS as a young woman and really hurt her back—to this day it bothers her, and she’s in her 40’s.
I think this author has the cause/effect relationship backwards.
I think one reason teenagers have disappeared from the workforce is that: (1) they don't want to work, and (2) our country has come to rely on teenagers whose primary role is to be consumers, not workers.
This is starkly evident at towns up and down the New Jersey shore. Many businesses there employ seasonal labor from places like Ireland and Eastern Europe -- while American teenagers loaf around and spend long stretches of their summers down there patronizing the same businesses where their parents probably worked a generation earlier.
I just wonder how much the minimum wage has to do with teen unemployment.
I'll give you that one.
My daughter statement comes from her observations. She notices "a gap", as she calls it in the age group between 16ish and 30ish. The group in the middle is going to be mostly forgotten about or marginalized in the future, because of a "spoiled brat, buy me that! attitude". To talk to her about it is interesting, I'll will tell you that I don't worry about her political, moral, or religious convictions.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!
I still think the attitude of this age group has a ton to do with it, it all works hand in hand. If I HAVE to pay you XYZ, I would expect XYZ about of work, not just XY and show up to work late, text all your friends, and leave early.
My wife and I are well-off and have three kids. I think we will encourage our children to work at part-time jobs ONLY to the extent it helps them prepare for college and a career. The pocket change they could earn at McDonald’s will not “move the needle”, but a full academic college scholarship might. We want their minds focused on the latter. We are Asian Indian. I think many parents of all races think the same way, but our views may be especially common among Asians. If it became clear that one of our kids were not “college material”, we would have to rethink our approach.
I hate to see teens so maligned. Not all are exemplary but there are tons of them doing remarkable things the most praiseworthy is of course fighting the Nation's wars.
The Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts has done several studies.
The first short paragraph shoots down the assertion of those who want to say today's teens are too lazy and don't want to find jobs. 45% want jobs, 33% have jobs. A pretty high unemployment rate among those looking for jobs. And if there were more opportunities, it's safe to say even more citizen teens would be looking.
I started working as a dishwasher for a steak house at 13. Until I started having kids I worked. Now my 15 year old son who REALLY wants to work because he wants a car, gets told no one hires 15s because of the liability and restricted hours. In Nebraska 14 & 15s can only work after 4:00 pm and before 7:00 pm during the week with a total of 18 hours per week during the school year. What employer in their right mind would want to mess with that? None in my area.
“The most likely reason immigrants displace U.S.-born teenagers is that the vast majority of immigrants are fully developed adults.”
Illegal included? Roofers I see are all Latino, many adults now have landscaping companies, and newspapers are going under. Any other positions beside “fat” food restaurants?
The Obama plan for Teenagers appears to be to sign them up for Americorps, the Civilian Defense Corps, or some other Brown Shirt organization, in exhange for which they will get free tuition and student aid to keep them in college until their 30’s (a la Germany). From there they will be shuttled straight into Gubbermint make-work jobe (Michelle’s “helping careers”) until they can retire on full Gubbermint pensions at age 50.
Unintended consequences of the nanny state are what is keeping the teenagers from working. I was working 40+ hours a week when I was 15. It's illegal to do that now. I was operating a meat slicer. You have to be 18 to do that now.
of course, having no other options in life at that point, they can then be counted on to participate in Greek-style riots should those pesky Republicans ever get into power and start cutting spending.
That was my first thought
New minimum wage and consumer spending bubble popping.
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