The percentage of teenagers who are working in America is abysmally low. In the 1950s, almost half of teenagers were working. That work rate slid slightly in the 40 percent to 45 percent range when baby boomers and Gen Xers were teens in the 1970s, and 1980s.
That labor force participation rate crashed with the spoiled generation – i.e., millennials – whose work rate as teenagers fell to as low as 28 percent. In other words, only a little more than half as many millennials worked as teens as previous generations. (Now in their late 20s and 30s, they are insisting on the right to “work” at home, or in offices with transgender bathrooms.)
More recently, there has been a slight tick-up in teen work rates to one in three among Gen Z teens – but even this is a pitifully low rate.
Why does this matter? Because almost every study on wages and career success shows that the earlier an individual starts to work and learn job skills, the higher their earnings and career trajectory. Instead of working and learning a work ethic, today’s teens are playing computer games or attending climate change rallies.
The villains in this story aren’t the kids. It’s their baby boomer parents (and you know who you are!) who pamper their teens and act as if requiring their sons and daughters to get a job would be a human rights violation. The parents aren’t doing their kids any favors.
2) How’s This for Stupidity? Uncle Sam Is Paying Auto Companies To Make EVs Americans Don’t Want
If you go to a new car dealer lot, you are likely to see hundreds of electric vehicles for sale, but few if any traditional gas cars. The dealers are peddling the EVs even though the vast majority of auto buyers say they don’t want one. So much for the customer always being right. The current strategy is as futile as trying to get a dog to swallow a pill with his mouth pried shut.
So now, the Biden admin. is offering a $12 billion bribe of tax dollars to auto companies that agree to convert their factories into plants for hybrid and EVs. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made the announcement last week.
The only question here is who’s dumber: the Biden administration for offering all this money or the U.S. auto companies for listening to the government – not car buyers.
3) Wind Mills May Be the Worst Federal “Investment” in History
One of Biden’s bigger fibs was when he declared last November: “Folks, it’s also now cheaper to generate electricity from wind and solar than it is from coal and oil. “Literally cheaper. Not a joke.”
Right. It’s so economical that Biden created a $380 billion taxpayer-financed Green New Deal slush fund for wind and solar.
Remarkably, even with this tsunami of tax dollars, the industry is in big trouble.
Last week, shares of Orsted, the world's largest offshore wind farm developer, crashed 25 percent after CEO Mads Nipper warned investors: "The situation in U.S. offshore wind is severe."
Why? Thanks to supply chain blockages, the price of wind turbines has increased 40 percent over the last two years, and the industry is now saying it needs even more billions of tax dollars to survive.
4) Hypocrite of the Week: Head of Chicago Teachers Union Sends Her Son to Private School
“I can’t advocate on behalf of public education without it taking root in my own household” Stacy Davis-Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and national vice president of Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers.
Wirepoints reports: Davis-Gates sends one of her three kids to De LaSalle, a prominent private school on the south side of Chicago. “But with tuition at $14,750 per year,” Wirepoints notes: “it’s open only to those with some means, like Davis-Gates, and the few who are fortunate enough to get financial help."
At her day job, Davis-Gates is paid a cool $150,000 a year and was a leader in the successful effort to defund Illinois's meager Invest in Kids Act, which gave some 9,000 disadvantaged kids scholarships to attend private schools.
In the story, we learn that this is now the official policy of Australia (and pay attention folks because these school policies are also becoming commonplace in the U.S.):
Climate change education is increasingly seen as an essential part of schooling.
As scientists keep reminding us, URGENT ACTION IS REQUIRED.
We thought this except from the story shined a bright spotlight on the indoctrination process that is happening is schools around the world:
“Teachers in our study were doing their very best to maintain a hopeful and positive message for students, but this often conflicted with their own feelings. As one teacher told us:
Personally, what I have to do is to try and make sure that I speak hopefully, even though it is not hopeful in my opinion […] I try and use language that will encourage students to feel empowered and want to make a change and fight for action.”
These are 8, 10, and 12-year-olds we are talking about.
