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How to Kill the Summer Job
Townhall.com ^ | July 29, 2015 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 07/29/2015 10:36:19 AM PDT by Kaslin

I had a lot of summer jobs. I was a foot messenger in New York for a couple of summers. I worked as a receptionist and mail room flunky. Before my junior year of high school, I briefly sold ice cream snacks -- sort of yuppie bonbons -- on the street for a company called Love Bites. The uniform was a tight red T-shirt (with a cupid over the heart), a straw hat, cane and snug brown shorts. When my manager asked me to work weekend nights in the (famously gay) West Village, I defected to a company that sold Italian ices. First, I didn't want to work nights. But at 16, I also wasn't ready to say, "Hey mister, would you like a Love Bite?" to the gang leaving the Stonewall Inn.

Truth be told, all I wanted out of most of these gigs was beer money. Today, however, psychologists, educators and economists all talk about the benefits of summer jobs in the context of acquiring "life skills."

These early part-time or temporary jobs teach young people to manage money. (I learned to buy cheap canned domestic beer, for instance, not the trendy imports or microbrews.) They help develop good work habits: show up on time, follow instructions, be courteous to customers, etc.

Basically, working teaches young people how to work. There's no substitute for it.

That's one reason I find the race to raise the minimum wage across the country so problematic. I understand the good intentions underlying it. But the idea that the minimum wage -- at least for young workers -- should be a "living wage" is absurd, even immoral. Employers are taking a risk when they hire people with no work experience. Why further discourage that?

Subsidize something and you get more of it. Tax it and you get less. There are plenty of ways to subsidize low-skill hiring -- an expanded earned-income tax credit, for instance. Instead, a higher minimum wage taxes the employers who hire low-skill workers. That's nuts.

Meanwhile, the summer job isn't extinct -- yet. In 1999, 52 percent of teens worked summer jobs. These days it's a third, and dropping. That's not just because of a bad labor market. This summer, even as the economy picked up, youth employment continued to decline. Indeed, according to the Pew Research Center, teen employment has been going out of fashion since 1990. Why?

The answer for one slice of the labor market -- college-bound teens from relatively affluent families -- seems to be that they are focusing all of their energy on enhancing their transcripts with unpaid internships (which Charles Murray calls "affirmative action for the advantaged"), self-interested volunteer work and test-prep or other courses. Affluent parents encourage their kids to study Mandarin or sponge oil off sea birds to prove how "selfless" they are to admissions officers.

Kids who've already gotten into college have turned their backs on summer work too. Visit summer tourist spots such as North Carolina's Outer Banks, Delaware's Rehoboth Beach or Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and you'll find that the positions once held by students from Eastern colleges are now filled by kids from Eastern Europe. It's interesting that many of these decidedly liberal communities would rather import labor from Belarus than from Baltimore.

(It's also telling that the very same unions that campaign for hikes in the minimum wage also want union members to be exempt from it. That way unions can pad their membership rolls while becoming a monopoly supplier of cheap labor to businesses. It's a disgustingly cynical ploy.)

Affluent kids may be less well adjusted and self-confident because they lack real work experience. Poorer youth truly suffer when they can't get a foothold in the workforce as early as possible.

But there's another long-term problem. America is raising a whole generation of "leaders" who see the people they are supposed to represent as abstractions rather than as individuals they have served, worked with or worked for. Just as we want civilian leaders who know what it's like to wear the uniform, we want policymakers who know what it's like to work -- and hire -- in the trenches.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
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1 posted on 07/29/2015 10:36:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

My son is on his first summer job. He is learning life skills. He’s majoring in aerospace engineering and working for a home remodeler.

The tool and problem solving skills will help him in his work. Plus, he’ll be able to fix his own house.


2 posted on 07/29/2015 10:52:17 AM PDT by cyclotic ( Check out traillifeusa.com. America's premier boys outdoor organization)
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To: Kaslin

My kids always worked when they were teens but the jobs they held don’t exist any more or are filled by illegals - pumping gas and checking oil level in service stations, mowing yards, newspaper route, washing cars, groundskeeper at local golf course, grocery sackers.


3 posted on 07/29/2015 10:53:30 AM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Kaslin

My son had two jobs last summer... a landscaping/nursery and private landscaping (from two older couples who liked him and needed work done). This summer, he has 3... Five Guys, private landscaping and a counselor for a young kid’s camp. Each job has taught him valuable life lessons about dealing with people, finance and has established quite a good work ethic. (very proud of him.. can you tell?!


4 posted on 07/29/2015 11:10:50 AM PDT by momtothree
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To: Kaslin

Goldberg misses the obvious reason...illegal aliens are taking most of the low-paying “entry level” jobs throughout the country.


5 posted on 07/29/2015 11:13:20 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: Kaslin

A-I’m a-gonna raise a fuss
I’m a-gonna raise a holler


6 posted on 07/29/2015 11:13:54 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: cyclotic

And it will give him an appreciation for hard, physical work and the people who have to do that kind of work.

And it will be incentive for him to keep focused on his school work lest he have to work that kind of job the rest of his life.

Worked for me on both counts. :)


7 posted on 07/29/2015 11:29:05 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: Kaslin
My best summer job was working on a garbage truck in a North Jersey town.

Learned more about life from them drunks and mobsters in one month, then most would learn in a lifetime.

8 posted on 07/29/2015 11:31:30 AM PDT by jaz.357 (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: Kaslin

” ... the idea that the minimum wage — at least for young workers — should be a ‘living wage’ is absurd.”

The fundamental problem with trying to use an increase in the minimum wage to alleviate poverty is that (1) most minimum-wage workers aren’t poor and (2) most poor people don’t work, at least in the legal sector covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.


9 posted on 07/29/2015 11:40:30 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: Kaslin
“Visit summer tourist spots such as North Carolina's Outer Banks, Delaware's Rehoboth Beach or Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and you'll find that the positions once held by students from Eastern colleges are now filled by kids from Eastern Europe”

I first noticed this in Ocracoke, on the Outer Banks, 15 years ago. The kids working at the ice cream stand were all from Romania. I also noticed that most of the summer help (housekeepers, parking valets) at our favorite Charleston, SC hotel were Russian. I asked the (American) night manager why, and he said that the U.S. college students have to leave in early August to get ready to go back to college, when there is at least another month of summer vacation demand to accommodate.

10 posted on 07/29/2015 11:51:32 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: dhs12345

I always said it was important for my kids to work minimum wage jobs during high school so they would understand why they wanted to go to college. In order to never have to do that again. The experience and to find out what it is like to punch a time clock is priceless.


11 posted on 07/29/2015 11:52:38 AM PDT by Mom MD
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To: Kaslin

Summer jobs bring job skills and experience.

Job skills and experience lead to better jobs.

Better jobs lead to more money and a greater ability to form stable families.

More money and a greater ability to form stable families dramatically reduces the chances for dependency.

Reducing dependency disempowers “progressives”.

Therefore, we must destroy the summer job to get rid of the problem at the root.


12 posted on 07/29/2015 12:25:30 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: Kaslin

Stonewall was probably closed when he sold Love Bites. It was probably Marie’s Crisis.


13 posted on 07/29/2015 12:31:35 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: I'd like to drive away not only the Turks (moslims) but all my foes.")
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To: miss marmelstein

With your grasp of the Village, what are the borders of the West Village? I was born on Barrow Street a long time ago and wondered if that would be considered West Village? Thanks,


14 posted on 07/29/2015 12:47:06 PM PDT by ex-snook (To conquer use Jesus, not bombs.)
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To: Kaslin

Add to that a $15 minimum wage, child labor laws that strictly limit their work hours and slap employers with hefty fines for being even one minute over, TJTC tax credits that incentivize the hiring of adults, and tort law that keeps shutting down swimming pools and other places of youth employment....


15 posted on 07/29/2015 1:00:12 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: ex-snook

I’d definitely say Barrow was West Village. What we once simply called Greenwich Village. I think it now extends from the Hudson River to about 6th Avenue. I’m no expert in Manhattan geography and the real estate agents keep changing the names of the neighborhoods. Give me Hell’s Kitchen and get rid of that bland Clinton!


16 posted on 07/29/2015 1:08:08 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard the Third: I'd like to drive away not only the Turks (moslims) but all my foes.")
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To: Kaslin

Living in a university town, there are tons of research jobs. My son got one last summer and he is still doing it a year later.


17 posted on 07/29/2015 1:11:25 PM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: miss marmelstein
" I’m no expert in Manhattan geography and the real estate agents keep changing the names of the neighborhoods. "

Many thanks for your Manhattan info. The things I know about the Village is that there was nothing gay about Barrow when I was born. Also regarding the real estate, there was a different pronunciation - it was not 'Grenich', as now, it was called 'Green-witch' by the Irish, and the bathrooms were in the yard.

Regards,

18 posted on 07/29/2015 1:26:01 PM PDT by ex-snook (To conquer use Jesus, not bombs.)
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To: Kaslin

A lot of today’s teens have no work ethic. Even if they get a small part-time job they usually don’t last long. They’ll say up front they are willing to work certain days but the first time they are scheduled and a friend is having a party they whine about working.

I work at a small pizza place with many 16-18 years olds and we lose many this way. They are wide-eyed and eager when applying for the job but once the work is required they get bored and want to go hang out with their friends.

Frankly this was the same back in my college days with students 18-20 years old in the late 70’s. “What, I have to work the night of Jim’s keg party?”

But on the other hand there are plenty that want the job and pick up the slack.


19 posted on 07/29/2015 1:39:31 PM PDT by Fledermaus (To hell with the Republican Party. I'm done with them. If I want a Lib Dem I'd vote for one.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Child labor laws today are ridiculous compared to just 30-40 years ago. Completely uneforceable too.


20 posted on 07/29/2015 1:40:45 PM PDT by Fledermaus (To hell with the Republican Party. I'm done with them. If I want a Lib Dem I'd vote for one.)
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