March 12, 2003

Today's kids! Shortchanged?

People these days, particularly those born between 1985 and 1990, have been and continue to be seriously shortchanged. Governments, and those quasi-governmental bodies, the insurance companies, have managed to do today's teenagers a great amount of damage. It's no more personal than if those kids were knocked down by sleeper waves while viewing the ocean from a rocky vantage point. Waves bear no malice. Neither does government. So long as their premiums are paid, neither do insurance companies.

In fact you could make a case that governments and insurance companies want to make the world safer for teenagers.

My time as a teenager occurred between 1944 and 1951.

I'd earned money for school clothes even before, by picking prunes. Former prune orchards where I got sore knees earning what's now parking meter change are now homes and shopping centers. Prune pickers like me earned little even by 1943 standards. My mother could pick four prunes for each one I managed.

As a thirteen year old, I was the lumper on Fenton Dairy's home delivery milk truck. It was an ancient vehicle, built some time before 1920. My job was to run up to front porches with armloads of glass milk bottles. Every so often, one or two would slip. Milk and glass would spill all over porch or sidewalk. OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, would have a cow if 13 year olds did that today.

When I was 14 I got started in the newspaper business by delivering 214 daily copies of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Later in my carrier days, I'd deliver my own route, then return to the newspaper office, prepared to deliver the route of any carrier who'd failed to show up. I took a great deal of pride in knowing the southern half of Santa Rosa like the back of my hand. If you gave me an address, I could describe the house, and I would.

Newspapers today weigh much more than those I delivered. Laws are stricter. Streets are more crowded today, more dangerous to bicyclists. Bike helmets were a distant dream in 1945. Newspaper delivery is done best when done by a 12 year old, but these days pragmatic circulation managers hire adults.

After I stopped delivering newspapers, I set pins in a bowling alley. Like delivering glass bottles of milk, today OSHA and those insurance companies would give birth to that cow I mentioned if anyone, adult or child, should work setting bowling pins. I understand their objections. It's not quite as dangerous as mining, but it's bad enough. One moment of inattention, one careless bowler, and a human pinsetter can be history. The invention of the automatic pinsetting machine saved many injuries and some deaths.

All the work I did as a kid had some element of danger. Today very little milk is delivered to porches. Almost no one gets it in glass bottles. Pinsetting is done by machines. It's cheaper and far safer. Newspapers are delivered in cars by adults.

The good news is, kids are safer than when I was growing up. The bad news is, far fewer kids have egos stroked and wallets filled by doing honest, if risky, work. These days some adults even earn a living by hyping the idea of hiring teenagers to do the few jobs teenager are still permitted to do. Those teenagers who do have jobs are getting a head start in a productive life. Good work habits need to be started young. If you're a teenager with a job, cherish it. If you can't find one, you might try creating one. There are a hundred creative and honest ways to make money in every neighborhood. And don't be afraid to ask for suggestions from adults, even strangers.

Paul@thereactor.netis the e mail address to use if you want to give the Reactor a piece of your mind. Check his website at www.thereactor.net.