If You’re Young You’re Screwed

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Many groups of people think the economic system is rigged against them. There is only one group I know of where that argument actually holds water.

That group is the young. The high school, college age entry-level worker. For the most part they are ignored because of their cost and inexperience.

The Elderly Culture

Many cultures in the world hold the elderly in high regard. The workforce culture also holds older more experienced workers in high regard.

The entry-level entry level worker costs more to train, makes more mistakes as he or she gains experience and, depending on the pay, may leave that job after a short time.

As a result, youth are often only hired for jobs either no one wants to do or jobs where they can’t do much damage if they screw up. It’s the reason there is a timer on the French fries.

What’s The Damage?

The more years the young are shut out of the workforce the more damage it does to the future economy.

While raising the minimum wage seems like a very noble thing to do there is a very small percentage of people who actually work for minimum wage.

That being said there is a case to be made that the longer they have to wait to enter the workforce and the longer it take for them to ascend the income ladder the slower our economy grows.

Social Security And The Tax Base

Social Security is based on the average of your 35 highest earning years. If you are still making close to minimum wage by the time you are 30 you can see that it will be tough for you to have much social security waiting for you — if it’s even there when you retire.

This lack of earning power inhibits the growth of our economy because there are more and more workers living below their means on unemployment, subsidies, and entitlements while not producing anything or increasing the tax base.

Our workforce participation is the lowest it’s been for several years. If that continues there is less production and less tax money produced to improve and lift the middle class.

Some Final Thoughts

The youth of the country should not be restricted from acquiring skills and experience that will allow them to move up the income ladder faster.

Working for less should be the workers choice not the government’s mandate. Most of us have a level of compensation we will not go below.

But for a younger worker still living at home or a student working their way through college should be able to negotiate their own salary based on their goals and aspirations.

Minimum pay should be left to the worker to either accept that pay or move on to something better.

Don’t we all demand higher compensation based on our skills and expertise? Our labor has a price based on our value to the person procuring that labor.

If youthful workers are prohibited from obtaining skills and expertise by forced government mandate how does that help the nation?

Few retire working in fast food. But there are those who retire after owning fast food franchises where they got their experience flipping burgers and listening for the French fry timer.

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