Based on my experience, the primary reason high school kids had jobs was to buy a car.
For various reasons (safety regulation, emissions requirements, minimum wage not keeping up with inflation, insurance outpacing inflation, cash for clunkers etc…) it’s now almost impossible to afford a car working a few hours at McDonald’s.
There’s also far more fast food restaurants per capita than there used to be, and food service/retail make up a larger part of the economy in general.
To top it off, the age of the average American has increased almost 10 years since 1960, so there are just fewer kids to do the jobs.
I still regret not buying that '68 Chevelle Super Sport for $600 when I was in h.s. That thing was a rocket with that giant V8 and very little car. I did wind up with a 67 289 Mustang. It was an automatic, and my buddy & I converted it to a 4 speed because muscle cars with automatics were for weeners.
We sure had fun shredding tires with it. I was lucky to survive the accident that terminated it.
For various reasons (safety regulation, emissions requirements, minimum wage not keeping up with inflation, insurance outpacing inflation, cash for clunkers etc…) it’s now almost impossible to afford a car working a few hours at McDonald’s.
There’s also far more fast food restaurants per capita than there used to be, and food service/retail make up a larger part of the economy in general.
To top it off, the age of the average American has increased almost 10 years since 1960, so there are just fewer kids to do the jobs.