Also, I want mine and your teenagers to be studying and preparing for their futures. These are jobs with limited upside, for the most part.

Learning discipline and the value of hard work is infinitely more important than learning things that are easily Googlable in out-dated high school curriculums.

Agriculture is mentioned, of course, but it's seasonal. Two months out of the year? What jobs do you do for the other 10 months?

"Hey, you know that lazy generation of kids coming through college right now without any experience actually holding a job? What if, bear with me here, what if, instead of black people from all over the country who can work for less than minimum wage (because they're already breaking the law by working in whites only jobs in the first place), what if instead of black people taking those jobs, white youth actually held jobs and got experience working? Wouldn't that be nuts? Oh you probably think white people don't want those jobs, right? They don't. At least, not for less than minimum wage, because that's illegal and nobody wants to have that on their record. But white teenagers definitely want money. Everybody does. Imagine a world where there is ZERO black workers in whites only occupations. Teenagers actually might learn the value of hard work. They might go to college with a strong work ethic and marketable skills. We might just be able to dig ourselves out of this massive college debt crisis."

If it were illegal for blacks to work some jobs (as it once was in a not-too distant past in a not-so-far-away place) wouldn't the appropriate response be to make it legal for them to compete with whites for said jobs

I suggest China, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Africa start first. As soon as China opens its borders to anyone who wants to go in and make lots of money there, and Saudi Arabia does so, and Israel does so, and Africa opens its borders to anyone who wants to go and tap into its natural resources, we should think about maybe doing the same here too.

As it stands, we already have a lot of illegal immigrants already, so let's let these other places take the lead first and we'll catch up with them later.

How many of your friends would be happy if their kids became an electrician, plumber, fire fighter, or police officer? These jobs can pay well but nobody wants to do them. You don't need an expensive college degree either, just vocational training. Thats much better than your starbucks barista with 60k student loan debt on her photography degree.

Not everyone needs to go to college. In fact I think it would be better if we killed the stigma against the trades and integrated vocational paths with public high schools. College is academia, and its only relevant if you're going into the sciences or some other highly technical skilled arena or the arts. Sorry but not all of your children are special and gifted.

To many kids going to college, getting expensive useless degrees, and then having little job prospects and a load of student debt. Not to mention the increased demand these people bring inflates college tuition for everyone else.

I worked on a farm from 12-17. Not an option for a non-Mexican for the last 15 years or so.

There's (much less) illegal immigration to Canada, but lower wage positions are filled with TFW visas

Now, the lower-tier jobs are being replaced with automation. In several Nordic countries (and even in Canada), there's fewer people doing the "cashier" role, they scan or get you the products, but you pay to a machine (either with cash or card)

College is tertiary, high school is secondary, grade school is primary.

We already have secondary education mandated, obviously. (And it makes your case stronger if you use the right term!)

Thanks for noting it, though. Life will keep you humble, always. :)

Learn to separate debt from college.

University is for everybody. Massive debt is for nobody.

Notice how I can separate those two.

Education shouldn't be forced on anyone either. The entire college debt bubble has been based on this thought that a barista needs a college degree.

What a job pays should not be defined by the required skills, at least not exclusively, it should be paid by the amount of work one does. And what a job pays is actually not defined by the required skills, it is defined by the availability and willingness of workers to do those jobs at certain wage levels, it just happens that increasing skill level and decreasing availability of workers are the same direction.

Note that I am not saying that a lazy worker taking ten times as long to produce some good as his coworkers should receive the same wage, nor I am saying you should not be compensate for spending additional years at an university to acquire higher skills. But after one accounted for those factors, it should really not make a huge difference whether you are developing software or whether you are picking oranges.

I did both, as did most people I know, and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect kids to continue to do that.

Source?

(Paying your employees less than minimum wage is going to make your tax records look funny.)