Field getting crowded for young job-seekers
Boys and girls and children of all ages are now competing in the American Circus of Economic Ruin. Note how the lower rungs of the "three rings" are becoming smaller, if not vanishing completely.
At the Hartwick Seminary McDonald's, many of the summer staff have been foreign born, here on cultural work visas. Same as last year ... same as next year? Our country is flooded with visiting worker programs, in fast food, warehouse and other industries, and the real benefits go solely to the employer. If you like to quote statistics, the numbers are simple to crunch. Not one job should be outsourced to foreign workers when our own citizens need them desperately.
Internships anyone? Where there used to be paying entry-level positions in business, small to large, you often find internships instead. As a course option or requirement, students will provide free labor to business in exchange for "experience credit." Maybe not free, because these programs must be partially funded by taxpayers aid to education. Bad as a revolving credit card, as the "graduates" of such programs will not find similar paying work as an always fresh crop of interns will be filling the positions.
A little sadness here also. Who hasn't seen the somewhat mentally challenged being brought around with their caregivers, to perform some simple task for an hour or two, such as bag packing at a supermarket?
If this provides some illusion of hope and productivity, I am fair-hearted about it. At the same time, it is only an illusion, as the jobs will never be available, because of revolving intern programs, their own and other's. Free labor should not be part of a free market, and taxpayer money should not be used to erode the tax base.
Richard Krzeminski
Milford
