Market Watch

[jyoutz]

I'd challenge the presumption that we can't hire citizens at $15/hr to do the jobs I'm thinking of.

I do agree that there are jobs that aren't getting filled even at today's higher wages, but that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm referencing is the kind of jobs I (we?) had as kids - de-tassling corn, delivering newspapers, working at fast food joints or as a bus boy at a locally-owned restaurant. Now, these jobs may pay $15/hr, but the expectations/requirements are much higher as each position costs the business much more.

On un-filled jobs, my personal believe aligns with other comments in this thread - we're paying people too much to not work that the incentive just isn't there. If it was starve vs work a $15/hr job, those jobs would be getting filled.

I find it interesting that those jobs you mention that many of us did in high school are now largely held by adults.

 

[jyoutz]

I blame ”academia” and the little college snots who put kids down for learning to weld, trades, fix broken equipment, join the military, or learn to farm.

These little Ivy league twerps made many young people feel like excrement about pursuing those ways of making a living. Calling them hicks, rednecks or losers.

Man I hate those Ivy league and snotty colleges.

Ruined the country’s social fabric.

Most skilled trades are higher paying than many entry level fields that require college degrees. I still see a lot of young guys doing plumbing, hvac, welding, and carpentry. Usually when we have plumbing or hvac work done it’s always a pair that show up: an older guy and young apprentice.

 

[Hay Dude]

Most skilled trades are higher paying than many entry level fields that require college degrees. I still see a lot of young guys doing plumbing, hvac, welding, and carpentry. Usually when we have plumbing or hvac work done it’s always a pair that show up: an older guy and young apprentice.

I didn’t say young people weren’t doing those jobs, I said I’m tired of the ridicule they have to take from some of the snotty college punks.
Hell, half the Hollywood garbage we gotta pay $20 to see just rips Americans who work with their hands.

 

[jyoutz]

Yeah, tell me high school and college kids don’t mock & ridicule kids who want to work right out of high school.
Hell, half the Hollywood garbage we gotta pay $20 to see just rips Americans who work with their hands.

IDK. My boys have lots of old HS friends they still keep in touch with. Some went to college, and some are doing skilled trades. And many in trades are making more than my sons. Of course I don’t know about other areas of the country. They just went to state universities, not snotty Ivy League schools, but then so does the majority of college students. Ivy League snots also make fun of state university students.

 

[drumminj]

I find it interesting that those jobs you mention that many of us did in high school are now largely held by adults.

I agree it's interesting. I don't claim to know why that is.

Do kids still work? Can the adults not find other jobs? Do they not have the skills for other jobs, such that the issue is a less-capable adult workforce these days? (arguably kids did these jobs because they were low-skilled and don't need/want a full-time job)

 

[rScotty]

Yeah, tell me high school and college kids don’t mock & ridicule kids who want to work right out of high school.
Hell, half the Hollywood garbage we gotta pay $20 to see just rips Americans who work with their hands.

It's an old problem. In Texas high schools the complaint was that the teachers were all college educated and they encouraged the HS students to go to college instead of learning a trade useful to them.

The hot new trade taught by trade schools was.... wait for it..... Typewriter Repair!

That was about the middle of the last century. Clearly Prehistoric. Not much is changed.

rScotty

 

[rScotty]

SNIP

Man I hate those Ivy league and snotty colleges.

Ruined the country’s social fabric.

Just so you have the comparison right, the HS graduation rate where I was from was less than 20% of the adults.
Most adults felt the same way about HS snots as you do about college kids. And they were just as arrogant about showing it.
rScotty

 

[jyoutz]

I agree it's interesting. I don't claim to know why that is.

Do kids still work? Can the adults not find other jobs? Do they not have the skills for other jobs, such that the issue is a less-capable adult workforce these days? (arguably kids did these jobs because they were low-skilled and don't need/want a full-time job)

I know that my boys when they were in HS 10 years ago had full time jobs in the summer, but during the school year only working on Saturdays at a local feed store and lumberyard. A lot of after school things like sports kinda made it hard for them to work on school days.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I agree it's interesting. I don't claim to know why that is.

Do kids still work? Can the adults not find other jobs? Do they not have the skills for other jobs, such that the issue is a less-capable adult workforce these days? (arguably kids did these jobs because they were low-skilled and don't need/want a full-time job)

My kids both work(ed) the legal max while in school. My son is 14, in high school, taking college classes and working 18 hours per week. No free lunches here.

 

[rScotty]

I know that my boys when they were in HS 10 years ago had full time jobs in the summer, but during the school year only working on Saturdays at a local feed store and lumberyard. A lot of after school things like sports kinda made it hard for them to work on school days.

Good for them. Some is OK, but looking back on it now, playing sports taught me more useful things than being cheap labor on neighbors farms or at the service station.