Why Teenagers Stopped Working in the Summer

Get a job they say. Start a career they say. Found your own business they hardly ever say. I remember my first job at Burlington Coat Factory. With $8.00 an hour and chunks of that taken for Medicare and payroll taxes it whittled down to about $6.75. I couldn’t manage my own hours. I had to work what my supervisors wanted me to do. This was twenty years ago.

The reality today is that there exist fewer jobs than before for teens. Maybe because of artificial means but Roland Fryer points out there’s been a decline even before the machines became part of the equation.

There is a dearth in the way that teens are engaging in the job market. It is as simple as looking at the numbers. Ever since the record has shown the data from 1948, this has been the weakest display of worker turnout for teenagers.

The amount of dollars generated from the sweat equity of teens is always premium. They are usually inexperienced and possess little skills. Usually, they would be easy to snap up to fulfill menial roles.

This way, employers can use their talents from high schoolers and community college dropouts and lack of basic education in the professional realm and put them to work.

What is so beautiful about this is that high school kids, high school graduates, and dropouts can enter into the job market knowing the truth about their position.

Or, they can always enter into the military. They will be trained and have enough money from bonuses. They will learn enough skills to become custodians. I’m a Devil Dog and I know that every Marine is a janitor. That’s the mark of what goes on in this country.

With whatever happens with the job market, there needs to be other avenues for young adults: the drug trade and prostitution.

If facts get disseminated about manufacturing, producing, distributing, and consuming scheduled narcotics and if sex workers are protected instead of targeted, there would be an influx of new roles to fill. And with no taxes taken out of paychecks including federal, state, and local payments for governmental services, there would be a groundswell of activity within the lives of individuals.

It is a shame our country still has government schools which teach children how to walk and then give them instructions on how to cripple themselves. With private schools, students might want to not take the summer “job” and focus on “getting off the plantation” and building their own nation.

The entrepreneurial spirit of this country is fueled by the minds of multitudes. However, it is only the individual who can come up with the next unicorn company that will have a trillion-dollar valuation.

Now, this is extremely rare…now. Maybe artificial means will prompt youngsters to tinkering basements and garages to at least come up with a billion-dollar widget or service.

But the majority of the teen population is set to enter the fray and fight their way to the light of modest money-making. It’s so ingrained in the culture that you have to get a job and just subsist on ramen and peanut and jelly sandwiches. You’re supposed to live with your parents and still have a dead end position and maybe rise up to the rank of night manager. That’s actually impressive. To have a placement among people even older than themselves gives a sense of superiority they may not have experienced before.

As we have been able to climb up from modest positions as teens to CEOs and other positions of power, we are able to use our pride to see our humble beginnings.