Pandemic pushes poor US
students into working odd jobs
Agence France-Presse,
by
Staff
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
6/8/2021 9:50:26 AM
When his father lost his job last year, Togi, then 16, wasted little time before looking for work to support his family, even though he knew it could put him at risk of contracting Covid-19. He ended up working at a fast food restaurant in a suburb of Washington, juggling the job with attending school held online as the world's largest Covid-19 outbreak tore through the United States. "It's exhausting," Togi said, describing long days spent between school and work, leaving little time for the teenager, who was born in Mongolia, to socialize. The twin health and economic crises caused
Geez...by his tender age I had already had stints as a hamburger flipper and gas jockey, tire installer, oil changer, car washer and grass cutter. For the next half century I was engaged doing stuff. Poor Togi could be back in Mongolia milking the family's yaks for excitement and less money.
30 people like this.
There, there…….poor millennials. My “Give an F” couldn’t give 2 F’s.
18 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
beancounter 6/8/2021 9:57:27 AM (No. 809512)
Almost everyone over 50 held an odd job when they were young. I had 4 or 5.
28 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
bpl40 6/8/2021 10:01:14 AM (No. 809518)
Women and minorities affected worst. Film at 11.00.
15 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
jimincalif 6/8/2021 10:02:40 AM (No. 809521)
IIRC, most of us had jobs in the last couple years of high school. I washed boats, cleaned the offices and restrooms for a boat dealer. I’d get on my bike to go home and stop at Carl’s Jr. where a classmate of mine worked. My kids had various gigs while in high school, McDonalds, Starbucks, a frozen yogurt place, etc. It’s not child abuse.
21 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
EQKimball 6/8/2021 10:06:23 AM (No. 809524)
I began delivering newspapers and collecting the monthly subscription price door-to-dor in the 6th grade. I felt fortunate that my parents didn’t own a farm.
17 people like this.
Sounds like a good thing. No time to socialize? Oh you mean take selfies and pass on nasty comments about people who are supposedly friends? That socialization which has driven up the suicide rate among teens? That one?
18 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
PChristopher 6/8/2021 10:16:25 AM (No. 809541)
I'm reminded of that wonderful old recurring skit from "In Living Color" called "Hey, Mon!" featuring the Hedley's, the hardest working West Indian family who each had at least five jobs and that was just on the boat coming over! All of that is to say, I'm sorry for your family's situation, but welcome to the world. I had friends who worked their way through college and I never heard them complain like kids do today.
11 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
snowoutlaw 6/8/2021 10:27:33 AM (No. 809552)
So what odd jobs did he have to take? Fast food is not an odd job. Community organizer is an odd job, selling drugs is an odd job. Some communities could learn a lot from this young man who will probably be very successful and live the American Dream.
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/8/2021 10:38:12 AM (No. 809570)
Oh, please. I began to work parttime - weekends, school holidays and vacations - from the time I was 14 (with a work permit signed by my parents). It was far more educational than some school courses. Togi, life is exhausting. That’s a lesson, too.
Maybe he’d be happier back in Mongolia…?
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
red1066 6/8/2021 11:08:53 AM (No. 809604)
Well if they're poor students, then maybe they should learn how to study. I wasn't the best student in college, and I had a job as well, but I learned how to study, take notes, and got better every year. Having a job while in school isn't the worst thing. The student learns some responsibility and about time management. Good life lessons. Or maybe the piece was about poor as in no money. Well, that was me too, but everything worked out.
6 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
columba 6/8/2021 11:17:36 AM (No. 809618)
I began working at odd jobs when I was 11.
I quit working (for money) in 2010.
You got a problem with work?
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
TLCary 6/8/2021 11:19:30 AM (No. 809621)
Terrible for him. Has he considered going back to Mongolia where clearly things are so much better and he won't have to whine to reporters about how hard his life is?
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 6/8/2021 11:21:19 AM (No. 809627)
They're just internships for living life.
Met a lot of interesting people, not from my "set", while working as a youngster. I learned what to do and what not to do. And it wasn't all academic.
Plus there were some cute scary girls.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
GoodDeal 6/8/2021 11:21:42 AM (No. 809629)
In case you haven't noticed the Plannedemic is over. Get back to normal and get back to living your life. Be thankful you had a job Togi.
4 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Clinger 6/8/2021 11:31:11 AM (No. 809646)
Oh the humanity. Who didn't work odd jobs? Once I took a job for a lady to "rake" her yard which turned out to be more about picking up her dog's winter waste. I kept taking odd jobs as a young degreed engineer. I went to grad school and into better paying jobs before I stopped taking odd jobs. Now that I'm of retirement age I will soon five years out or so need to go back to taking odd jobs.
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
bighambone 6/8/2021 11:32:42 AM (No. 809649)
You think it is bad now with young American workers trying to find jobs, just wait until the untold numbers of illegal aliens that Biden is now allowing into the USA and telling them that they are exempt from being arrested by federal immigration authorities and be deported from the USA spread out across the USA.
As those illegal aliens, long known to US employers to be cheap foreign labor who have always depressed the wages of US workers similarly employed, thus lowering the wages those employers would have to pay them, are put at the front of US employer’s hiring lines for any US jobs that employers can hire them into!
5 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
skacmar 6/8/2021 11:35:56 AM (No. 809652)
Cry me a river. I started babysitting and odd jobs. When 16, got a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant. That was the start of different jobs at the restaurant and other jobs (all while going to school). In college I had 3 jobs. If you set priorities, you can still go to school, have a job, and still have time to socialize. Get your friends to get jobs where you work if you really want to see them. That's what I did. We all worked together every weekend and had a great time. Guess what? We all lived!
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
cold porridge 6/8/2021 11:48:22 AM (No. 809670)
Oh boo hooo! I started working at age 14 after school, followed by working construction in the summers and after college classes in the evenings. Most people that want to get anywhere in life work for it. The rest are usually Commucrats.
2 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Namma 6/8/2021 11:56:04 AM (No. 809683)
I was informed many many many years ago, that we were put on the face of the earth to WORK. Many friends and colleagues worked a full time job and went to night school to graduate from college. Sure it’s hard but that’s the way it was. Paid off in the end.
3 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Californian 6/8/2021 12:01:06 PM (No. 809686)
First job for a stranger at 17 working in local store doing whatever they needed outside school hours.
Is there someone I can sue for child abuse?
4 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Strike3 6/8/2021 12:40:43 PM (No. 809710)
Oh, the horror. Most people on this forum probably had to suffer the same cruelty and are scarred for life. I know I am.
4 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
TexaTucky 6/8/2021 1:10:05 PM (No. 809743)
Most of my self-confidence and knowledge that I can make it in this world was nourished by "odd jobs" (some really crappy) this "poor US student" from Kentucky did as a kid and young adult. Besides earning the money that afforded me decent clothing and gas money and financed the gap between scholarships and college costs, I credit those jobs with giving me some of my fondest memories of some good people and great experiences. It builds a future man's character to be able to identify with cleaning toilets, mowing grass, waiting tables, scrubbing pizza pans, mopping floors, stocking shelves, and getting up at 4am every morning to roll, rubber band, and deliver 100+ newspapers on time and ON-the-porch-young-man !!
A society that cheats a young man like Togi out of the expectation that he should work when he's young are robbing all the Togis of something very important that will redound to their detriment when they're older and weaken the very fabric of that society. Done did, I guess.
2 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
john56 6/8/2021 1:28:56 PM (No. 809766)
Well, at least he wasn't collecting a employment pandemic-uneployment check.
3 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
jacksin5 6/8/2021 1:47:18 PM (No. 809786)
Had my first "Paycheck" job at 15, after years of paperboy, lawnmower and leaf raker, snow shoveler etc. My parents were quite cleat on the "We pay for the basics, you pay for the luxuries".
2 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
hershey 6/8/2021 3:28:19 PM (No. 809894)
Needs to look around...there are plenty of 'Wanted to Hire' signs in my area...
2 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 6/8/2021 6:39:16 PM (No. 810050)
Most of us over a certain age worked tough jobs when young. Mine was two summers at a feed mill two at a chicken hatchery while still a teen in HS. You learn a lot by working along with all different sorts and you can get some good life lessons like getting fired from a construction job one summer when a co-worker screwed up and they let us both go. I realize I sound like an old man sitting on his porch griping about today's young people which is a pretty good description of myself. I even have a cane to complete the picture but today's youth really are dumber and lazier than years past. Not all of course but overall there is a serious decline.
1 person likes this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
DVC 6/9/2021 7:41:06 PM (No. 811134)
What a LOAD !
Aww....poor babies. (in my most sarcastic possible voice)
1 person likes this.
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