Throwing cold water on summer jobs

The Boston Globe ^ | 5/9/2003 | Diane E. Lewis

[Willie Green]

Thousands of Boston teenagers will not have jobs this summer because of deep cuts in the Massachusetts budget and an ongoing economic downturn that has caused many retailers and small and midsize firms to reduce costs, forcing local high school students to compete with jobless adults for entry-level work when school ends. The City of Boston will not receive a state appropriation for summer jobs this year. The decision to eliminate funding for such jobs is part of an about-face that began in 2000, when state support for summer work dropped to $420,220, from a high of $2.1 million in 1998.

[Living Free in NH]

The reductions will put an end to the ''gray shirts,'' the summer cleanup program in which 1,500 city youths, dressed in city T-shirts and armed with spear-like sticks and tan plastic bags, scoured local streets for debris 25 hours a week for an hourly wage of $7

Sounds like good work for all the nice people in jail - or, God forbid, those stay-at-home slobs on welfare.

[Frohickey]

This article is a bunch of hogwash.

Teenagers can still find work. They can mow lawns (oh no, Jose and Pedro would have to go back to Mexico!!). They can wash cars. They can empty the trash, and vacuum office buildings. They can load and unload freight at the loading dock.

[Asclepius]

We're also seeing many adults take jobs that were done by teenagers.

Tell me about it.

I was just replaced by a purple-butted baboon.

[So Cal Rocket]

It sure looks like the folks who said that increasing the minimum wage will have an adverse effect on the job market for unskilled, inexperienced workers were right.

Maybe we should roll back the minimum wage to $3.50 an hour and some of these people will have jobs.

Last time I looked "$3.50/hour x 40 hours per week" was a lot bigger number than "7.00/hour x 0 hours per week".

SCR

[Pan_Yans Wife]

You forgot babysitting, house cleaning, house sitting, dog walking, paper routes, etc. Why should the government be involved in finding these jobs for children? Do they advertise in the local schools?

[the Real fifi]

The same moaning is taking place in DC where they had to cut back on the program---Mayors love these programs because it makes the kids think the mayor is paying them, get it?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The children can't vote today, but they will always remember the fatherly mayor that was looking out for them, and vote for his party forever.

[widowithfoursons]

Taxachussettes rides again.

[ChuckMartelRox]

"because of deep cuts in the Massachusetts budget"

Of course, because government creates jobs. The bigger government gets, the more jobs there are, and the more prosperous society becomes. < /Globethink >