[angry elephant]

Kids are a much higher percent of the population now than they were during the small X generation. In my boomer generation with so many teenagers, one had to have some kind of political pull to land even a fastfood job.

[Straight Vermonter]

Kids are a much higher percent of the population now than they were during the small X generation. In my boomer generation with so many teenagers, one had to have some kind of political pull to land even a fastfood job.

The opposite is true.

Teenagers have never been a smaller portion of our population

[riverdawg]

“In my boomer generation with so many teenagers, one had to have some kind of political pull to land even a fastfood job”

Not where I grew up (SE Virginia). Almost every boy and about half the girls I knew earned money at some sort of part-time job. For the boys, it might have been a paper route, working as an usher at the local movie theater, or bagging groceries. Today, some of these jobs have been taken over by adults (paper routes) or eliminated (movie usher). I have the impression that it is more difficult today for teens to find a part-time job, even if they really want one.