5 ms·

What? We really don't actually need high school kids working. Most don't.

paulpauper 3y ago
agree. that seems like an outdated concept by 50 years. i would rather have employees with experience take those jobs than teens who do their job poorly
- _yb2s 3y ago
  How are they supposed to become adults with experience, if they can't get jobs as teens? I worked a ton of jobs as a teenager, and started a few small businesses. I was highly motivated to prove myself against adults with the attitude you have, so I was working twice as hard and was making half the mistakes of my adult co-workers. I learned so much working as a teenager, and it was a really enjoyable experience to feel useful, and to have my own disposable income. Without it, my mental health would have been much worse.
  - fzeroracer 3y ago
    All of these comments saying that you worked a ton of jobs as a teenager and started small businesses: How many of you even realize how out of date your concept of being a teenager is like? If a teenager is working it's in order to support their parents nowadays. They're not building any sort of higher experience flipping burgers or stocking shelves, they're tanking their education in order to survive. It certainly as hell wasn't aligned with my teenage experience growing up poor. And more importantly think about how far a minimum wage part time job as a teenager is going to get you today vs 30 years ago relative to inflation.
    - andelink 3y ago
      > If a teenager is working it's in order to support their parents nowadays. I went to high school 2008-2012. I got my first job at 15, and then two more jobs later on before graduating. I also had a small thing cleaning this retired couples house once a week and getting paid cash. I did not support my parents at all. The money was mine to keep or spend irresponsibly as I’d like. > they're tanking their education in order to survive. That’s not necessarily true. I worked in the summers only. I did have a bakery business with a friend selling our home made baked goods to our fellow classmates during the school year, but that did not take much of our time
- VancouverMan 3y ago
  I find it's the opposite, at least here in Canada. In the past, fast food jobs were often done by young adults from the local area. They always spoke excellent English and/or French. They also tended to know at least some of the customers from outside of the job, too, from sports and other activities. In some cases, they'd be serving relatives and their own friends. With them having also often gone to the establishment they were working at as customers while growing up, they were familiar with how customers were expected to be treated and what level of service was to be provided. I didn't realize it at the time, but the service they offered was actually pretty good. They could take an order correctly, the ones in the back did a decent job of preparing the food, the restaurants were kept clean, and overall it wasn't a bad experience. Two decades of rather awful immigration policies and other government-imposed economic distortions have changed all of that. Now it's common to see foreign adults working such jobs. They often have a limited grasp of the local language(s), no ties to the community, and limited understanding of the level of service they should be providing. Something as fundamental as placing an order in person is often far more difficult than it should be due to communication challenges, and mistakes are too common. The quality of the food preparation has gone down. The cleanliness of the establishments has gone down. The prices, however, keep rising. Overall, getting fast food is just not a good experience any longer. The automated kiosks and phone apps at least help avoid some of the ordering challenges that never existed before, but the rest of the experience can be quite bad. I used to enjoy going to fast food restaurants and did it quite often, back when it was Canadian young adults doing the work at such establishments. Now, though, it's such an abysmal experience that I rarely go. Whenever I do happen to, usually as a last resort, I'm typically left very disappointed.
nickthegreek 3y ago
We don’t? I started working when I was 15 so I could buy a car when I turned 16. With a car, all kinds of opportunities open up. Like taking girls on dates, which, what do you, costs money. Luckily for me I had a source of income. Lord knows my parents couldn’t afford to just give me cash. I think about all the fun life experiences I would have missed out on along with the character building that comes along with doing a job well and earning a paycheck.
- timeon 3y ago
  People drive car at 16? Is that legal?
  - BenjiWiebe 3y ago
    Depending where you are in the world, yes. You can get your full driver's license at 16.5 and various more restrictive ones before that here in Kansas (USA).
  - jkubicek 3y ago
    I got my school permit at 14, which allowed me to legally drive back and forth to school.
- digging 3y ago
  Fine, but it's not at all a typical or necessary part of life in most of the US. We do not need to be basing policy off of the "need" for teenagers to work when it affects tens of thousands of family's dinner tables. Besides, what decade were you 15 in? Finally, I don't think child labor is the answer to the forced isolation of car-dependent infrastructure.
  - nickthegreek 3y ago
    The late 90s. How old were you when you got your first job?

agree. that seems like an outdated concept by 50 years. i would rather have employees with experience take those jobs than teens who do their job poorly

_yb2s 3y ago
How are they supposed to become adults with experience, if they can't get jobs as teens? I worked a ton of jobs as a teenager, and started a few small businesses. I was highly motivated to prove myself against adults with the attitude you have, so I was working twice as hard and was making half the mistakes of my adult co-workers. I learned so much working as a teenager, and it was a really enjoyable experience to feel useful, and to have my own disposable income. Without it, my mental health would have been much worse.
- fzeroracer 3y ago
  All of these comments saying that you worked a ton of jobs as a teenager and started small businesses: How many of you even realize how out of date your concept of being a teenager is like? If a teenager is working it's in order to support their parents nowadays. They're not building any sort of higher experience flipping burgers or stocking shelves, they're tanking their education in order to survive. It certainly as hell wasn't aligned with my teenage experience growing up poor. And more importantly think about how far a minimum wage part time job as a teenager is going to get you today vs 30 years ago relative to inflation.
  - andelink 3y ago
    > If a teenager is working it's in order to support their parents nowadays. I went to high school 2008-2012. I got my first job at 15, and then two more jobs later on before graduating. I also had a small thing cleaning this retired couples house once a week and getting paid cash. I did not support my parents at all. The money was mine to keep or spend irresponsibly as I’d like. > they're tanking their education in order to survive. That’s not necessarily true. I worked in the summers only. I did have a bakery business with a friend selling our home made baked goods to our fellow classmates during the school year, but that did not take much of our time
VancouverMan 3y ago
I find it's the opposite, at least here in Canada. In the past, fast food jobs were often done by young adults from the local area. They always spoke excellent English and/or French. They also tended to know at least some of the customers from outside of the job, too, from sports and other activities. In some cases, they'd be serving relatives and their own friends. With them having also often gone to the establishment they were working at as customers while growing up, they were familiar with how customers were expected to be treated and what level of service was to be provided. I didn't realize it at the time, but the service they offered was actually pretty good. They could take an order correctly, the ones in the back did a decent job of preparing the food, the restaurants were kept clean, and overall it wasn't a bad experience. Two decades of rather awful immigration policies and other government-imposed economic distortions have changed all of that. Now it's common to see foreign adults working such jobs. They often have a limited grasp of the local language(s), no ties to the community, and limited understanding of the level of service they should be providing. Something as fundamental as placing an order in person is often far more difficult than it should be due to communication challenges, and mistakes are too common. The quality of the food preparation has gone down. The cleanliness of the establishments has gone down. The prices, however, keep rising. Overall, getting fast food is just not a good experience any longer. The automated kiosks and phone apps at least help avoid some of the ordering challenges that never existed before, but the rest of the experience can be quite bad. I used to enjoy going to fast food restaurants and did it quite often, back when it was Canadian young adults doing the work at such establishments. Now, though, it's such an abysmal experience that I rarely go. Whenever I do happen to, usually as a last resort, I'm typically left very disappointed.

nickthegreek 3y ago

We don’t? I started working when I was 15 so I could buy a car when I turned 16. With a car, all kinds of opportunities open up. Like taking girls on dates, which, what do you, costs money. Luckily for me I had a source of income. Lord knows my parents couldn’t afford to just give me cash. I think about all the fun life experiences I would have missed out on along with the character building that comes along with doing a job well and earning a paycheck.

timeon 3y ago
People drive car at 16? Is that legal?
- BenjiWiebe 3y ago
  Depending where you are in the world, yes. You can get your full driver's license at 16.5 and various more restrictive ones before that here in Kansas (USA).
- jkubicek 3y ago
  I got my school permit at 14, which allowed me to legally drive back and forth to school.
digging 3y ago
Fine, but it's not at all a typical or necessary part of life in most of the US. We do not need to be basing policy off of the "need" for teenagers to work when it affects tens of thousands of family's dinner tables. Besides, what decade were you 15 in? Finally, I don't think child labor is the answer to the forced isolation of car-dependent infrastructure.
- nickthegreek 3y ago
  The late 90s. How old were you when you got your first job?