Youth Employment and American 'Work Ethics'

[C. Petersen]

> Though many teenagers are forced by economic hardships to work for pay, it
> seems that in the US even those teenagers who can easily afford not to work
> tend to work for pay, doing shit work for lousy wages for long hours,
> instead of reading, becoming politically active, having fun, cultivating an
> aptitude for the enjoyment of time spent without purpose, or doing anything
> that is more worthwhile than creating surplus value for the low-wage
> service industry. The following excerpt from the May 13, 1998 BLS daily
> report suggests the extent of the pernicious effects of the ideology of
> 'Work Ethics' upon youths in the US.
> 
> Yoshie
You're quite right. I graduate with a BS in biology, and it seems that
even in this good job market in Seattle, it's impossible to get a good job
without a graduate degree. But I'm one of the luckiest people I know in
that I had full ride scholarships at the UoW and for all I know, my
landlord could be dead and he hasn't raised the rent in 10 years, as long
as I keep sending a check to the island where he lives every month. So
I've been able to survive on working for pay perhaps 2 hours a day this
past year. With high school it's a situation that everyone *needs* to have
a car (at least in all rural and suburban high schools). It's hard to
conceive of now, but I remember how it was the greatest embarrassment to
ride a bicycle to school and people would actually jeer you as you locked
your bike. So everyone had this intense pressure to buy a car and yearly
insurance working $5/hour at a horrible job somewhere which would total
perhaps: [car$4000+ins. $1000 + Misc.$1000 /$5 = 1200 hours of work just
to have this car, effectively leaving no time to drive around looking
cool. And the car of course will be worthless in a few years.
I know a lot of university students who work 30-40 hours during school
because they feel they can't take a quarter off to work