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Not quite a summer job anecdote, but close enough. My wife spent her high school years in a neighboring town to an NFL stadium. It was common for the high school sports teams or local youth groups, to earn money by cleaning the stadium after a game.
Obviously, pretty horrendous work, doubly so in the pre-gentrified era of the NFL in the late 80s, early 90s. The high school football team, the field hockey team... this was nevertheless, real work.
The football team might augment funds with a car wash or something, but the field hockey team would would augment funds by dawning their uniforms--do I need to explain?--- and selling candy or raffle tickets outside liquor stores--no doubt a good sales tactic, but indeed, more degrading if preferred to collecting beer cups, dip cups, and I'll spare the rest.
It was noted a year ago in the papers, that the local stadium had presently been contracting with a cleaning crew staffed with...illegals.
I guess the local sports teams are still doing car washes, and for the gals, dawning skirts and asking for money outside liquor stores.
Even though I dislike Mr Derbyshire, I think he is right about this. I think it goes hand and hand with the myth promoted by the elites that everyone can and should go to college.
And of course, the situation is getting worse than even my generation was. Whereas most of us had some kind of fast food or mall job, now I see roaming packs of 17-19 year olds wandering around the city at all times of the day.
I remember that David Sirota was taking an angry dispute to John Stossel over his position on minimum wage laws, and Stossel's argument was that only 3% of the working population of US was working in minimum wage, and for young kids hoping to get some basic job experience, there was no room for even simple tasks at that wage.
Not to start an issue on living wage matters, but there's just so many ways and ways in which it seems less likely for a person to find work for the sole person of learning what it is like to work - and basically come on time, be polite to customers, and everything else. Skills that can't be learnt in college obviously.
Why do you dislike Derbyshire?
Because he is another moral relativist atheist who only opposes mass immigration for utilitarian reasons.
I like Derb. I still can't believe he's published at NR. Mr. Maxwell, did you read Derb's address to the Black Law Students' Association (BLSA) of the University of Pennsylvania Law School?
Mr Toddard, based on things he has said in the past, he doesnt seem to mind us being swamped with immigrants as long as they have high IQs. He treats it mostly as an intelligence issue, which is also my problem with Steve Sailer. Not to mention he writes for the 'secular right' crowd; just what we need, more anti-Christian 'allies'.
Daniel, I am reminded of something that Tom Piatak wrote in TakiMag.
He said that a lot of his acquaintances are not religious and are not believers.
He also said that most of them appreciate the contributions of Christianity to western civilization. This was his response to the claim made by someone who said, "I don't understand why atheists are so angry", on the subject of Christopher Hitchens; what Mr. Piatak said was that he doesn't think atheists are angry, even though Hitchens is.
Does not having a Christian upbringing make a person anti-Christian, even if he agrees with a Christian on most things? Would this then apply to even Jewish people, apart from atheists? It's a serious question.
Let's remember - the anti-war movement has had the backing of many socialists, Marxists, and communists. We may not even agree with them on 99% of things, but their efforts in educating people about war and opposing it were never passive, and amount to more than, yes, what latter-day conservatives have done in opposing the growth of empire.
Mr Sanjay, no I think youre wrong. I believe Derbyshire is an anti-theist. If you dont believe me, take a look at the 'rational' secular right blog I mentioned. That a broken clock like Derbyshire is right twice a day shouldnt be that surprising.
The antiwar left, aside from some consistent ones like Mr Cockburn, have shown themselves to be feckless. Their interest in the wars dropped almost as soon as Obama was inaugurated. They can never be full allies because in their hearts most of them are pacifists, which is an anti-Christian ideology.
I understand what Mr. Maxwell's point, and yet I read Derbyshire's We Are Doomed, and I think that particular broken clock is right more than twice a day, and perhaps more often than wrong.
I forgot about the secular right website, though. That is troubling. Secularism is itself anti-conservative phenomena.
"Non-Christian" should not be confused with "anti-Christian." There are plenty of people who have a difficult time with Christian dogma who notwithstanding are not hostile to it -- or to the people who believe it.
"Relativism," I might add, is a fungible term. Everyone in some way is a relativist. Speaking one's own language (as opposed to someone else's), for example, is an act of relativism. So is the very institution of the nation-state.
Thanks for the tip on a very interesting story, Mr. Piatak.
The "low level" jobs situation is very interesting.
I know in our suburban neighborhood there are no more paper boys. Unlike the days of my childhood when you paid the kid down the street to deliver your newspaper, we send a check to the corporate owners and our paper magically arrives via some car with no local kid to be seen.
I never see kids mowing anyone's lawn anymore, seemingly not even the one at their own house. I do see professional crews staffed by Mexicans doing this and the male heads of households but never kids anymore. I wonder is this part of the same phenomenon that ended tree-climbing and riding bikes without helmets or are kids too musy with the video game machine or are there more of those Wall Street internships available?
I personally was challenged enough being a grocery clerk, lawn mower, and floor mopper and couldn't possibly fathom what I could have accomplished/contributed on Wall Street as a teenager....
Derbyshire is the only one worth reading at NRO. He may be an Athiest, but he has taken flak for addressing the cultural aspects of mass immigration rather than sticking to the utilitarian arguments.