Get a Job, Kid
‘Content creation’ is no way to spend a summer.
Good morning. Welcome to Free Expression, a daily newsletter on life, culture and politics from WSJ Opinion.
If someone forwarded you this email, please take a moment to subscribe. You can follow us on X/Twitter, Instagram, Substack and TikTok.
Today in Free Expression, columnist James B. Meigs reminds us that renewable energy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; JP De Gance implores young people to head to the altar without breaking the bank; and Alysha Tagert warns about the mental health effects of apocalyptic climate predictions.
But first, get off the couch. It’ll do you good . . .
Teenage Wasteland
I wasn’t great at my first job.
Not because I was ungrateful to work at the community pool to which my family belonged. I was. During training for new hires, the pool’s manager stressed how appreciative we all should be. I was 15 when I started on Memorial Day weekend in 2009. The 2007-09 recession hadn’t ended. That happened in June. Unemployment peaked in October. The manager said he’d gotten more applications than he could use, some from people he wouldn’t have expected to be interested.
I kept this in mind as I fumbled through my simple duties. As a front-desk attendant, I checked in members and guests and managed parties. As a concession-stand worker, I dished out Airheads, Ring Pops, Nerd Ropes, Klondike bars and the occasional microwaved chicken sandwich to people who weren’t swimming or otherwise recreating.
But I still screwed up plenty. Sometimes I forgot to register nonmembers properly for parties. I occasionally neglected a step on the list of shift-ending cleanup tasks in the concession stand. And more than once it slipped my mind to clock in using the landline-phone-based check-in system. When that happened I’d have to fill out a time sheet form for my shift manager to approve. I’m still convinced I was the main reason why, in the middle of the summer, one of the shift managers required a “retraining” session for all employees at my level. Sorry about that, guys.
For all my mess-ups, I remain thankful for my pool gig. In part because of the mess-ups. Everyone’s gotta start somewhere. Even an unglamorous role teaches the basics of employment that we all have to learn at some point. I had to know my schedule. I had to get myself there on my trusty bike. I had to look people in the eye, clean up after not only myself but others and at the very least fake responsibility and competence. By Labor Day, I may have even stopped faking.
Young people are now experiencing this less. The Journal reports that this summer is expected to be among the worst in decades for aspiring teenage burger-flippers. A large culprit is a 70% decline in available roles in the entertainment and leisure sector. Such positions are often a first rung on the ladder for teens. Minimum-wage increases of the sort California recently instituted also destroy entry-level jobs in industries such as fast food (remember, the true “minimum wage” is zero).
The Journal gets at a more worrisome reason that fewer teens are employed, though. They’re simply unable, or uninterested:
Many of today’s teens aren’t looking for jobs because competing priorities like college prep, sports and other extracurriculars, including content creation, take up their time. In the 1970s and 1980s, teen employment routinely topped 50%, as bagging groceries, flipping burgers and lifeguarding were considered a rite of passage for young Americans. Teen employment is now around 35%.
I don’t think I’m old enough to have earned the right to be all “back in my day” about this. Not yet, anyway. But there’s no age threshold for finding this worrying, especially in the broader context of life for young people today. Fewer of them are getting driver’s licenses. Fewer of them are doing things in the real world. They’re dating less. They’re also drinking and having sex less, which ordinarily you’d say are good things for teenagers. But ideally those last two trends wouldn’t be linked to a widespread retreat from the physical world.
The life of a modern young person increasingly seems to consist of going from one box-checking, résumé-building exercise to another, usually chaperoned by a parent or some other monitoring adult, punctuated by “relaxation” in the form of some indoor activity. Such a schedule doesn’t easily accommodate a part-time job. It may be actively hostile to one. How can a horde of potentially angry customers compete with a pleasantly curated digital environment? Will a humdrum gig at the local pool impress a college-admissions officer?
The benefits can be hard to see on paper. But anyone who’s started at the bottom rung of the ladder knows they’re real. They may come in a more haphazard and less comfortable way than carefully chosen extracurriculars or the joys of “content creation.” But in my experience, that’s exactly what kids today—and in any day—need.
Not all hope is lost for modern youth, however. Lifeguard openings are up 78% this year.
Happy whistling.
The Last Vice: The kids aren’t drinking and they aren’t smoking, but they are tanning. Another paper published locally warns that Gen Zers are less concerned about getting skin cancer than the average adult. “I would have hoped that the concept of tanning would have been a part of that, where it just became uncool,” said one doctor. Young people tend to think of themselves as invincible. Sadly, they aren’t. Wear your sunscreen, no matter what the cool kids tell you on TikTok. — Emma Camp
Hero Wanted: The search for the next James Bond has begun. Assuming the franchise is sticking to its 25-film tradition, candidates must be handsome, witty, relatively young, not too famous (or else they may overshadow the role), and, of course, British. But much else is still up in the air. No actor has yet secured strong odds in the betting market, and the film’s plot is a mystery. Some are speculating it could involve artificial intelligence, which is an enemy that doesn’t appear in Ian Fleming’s original novels. Let’s at least hope 007 still drinks martinis. — Mary Julia Koch
O, Man: At a Wednesday cabinet meeting, President Trump uttered one of his trademark chaos comments: “The Strait is going to be open to everybody. It’s international waters. We’ll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. Oman will behave like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that.” The Omanis might have wondered whether Mr. Trump misspoke. He occasionally does. Any diplomatic confusion was cleared up quickly when the State Department promptly tweeted video of his casual threat. Did he really mean it? Keep an eye on the sky. — Matthew Hennessey
The ‘Renewable’ Boondoggle
James B. Meigs
We aren’t making enough electricity. The risk of power outages has risen in recent years, even as consumers pay more.
Whatever direction our power grid takes, let’s hope it’s guided by engineering and economic reality—not politically motivated wishcasting.
Read James’s Column ⧁
No Bride a Borrower
JP De Gance
We should love weddings enough to rescue them from excess. We should love marriage enough to stop making young people feel ashamed of simple beginnings.
Read JP’s Article ⧁
The Curse of Climate Anxiety
Alysha Tagert
Repeatedly absorbing an apocalyptic message has consequences for everyone. It’s worse for children and adolescents. When the future is presented as fundamentally unstable or doomed, it warps an entire generation’s worldview.
Read Alysha’s Article ⧁
Does the Pope Use Air Conditioning?
Leo is right to warn that technology can be harmful, but he’s wrong to imply it can be stopped.
By Louise Perry
Only Dopes Play Enhanced Games
This sporting gimmick will never swim fast enough to escape the giant asterisk.
By Jack Butler
Smile. You’re Hired
The most powerful mental-health remedy for joblessness is getting back to work.
By Rob Henderson
About Free Expression
Free Expression is a daily newsletter on American life, politics and culture from the Opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal.
Published directly to your inbox Monday through Friday, Free Expression features news and commentary from WSJ Opinion editors, regular columnists and other contributors.
Sign up and start reading Free Expression today.
Don’t listen to this. Prepare for your SATs.
Content creation like a blog and a youtube channel are a great way to build something you can show to prospective future employers.
I know a young man who will intern this summer with a prestigious DC think tank because he impressed them with his writings on his anonymous blog.