Marina Yardaeva A healthy economy does not need children Why working after school is a bad idea 17.01.2023 at 16:38

In the old year, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova took the initiative to facilitate the recruitment of young people. They proposed to stop harassing underage job seekers by collecting unnecessary certificates and to lower insurance premiums for employers who hire minors. They presented everything as an opportunity to take care of families, improve their financial well-being. But what could the consequences be?

First of all, I will talk about the situation as a teacher. So many young people really want to work, they can’t wait for their 14th birthday. Then they get very upset when that 14th birthday arrives and they are convinced that a passport isn’t enough to start earning something. Young people are ready to work for ridiculous money. Queues form for several days even to distribute leaflets at 100-150 rubles per hour. Most young people can’t compare time spent with salary. Jumping in a zebra costume for the only day downtown? Easy. Even if you live in the suburbs and it takes you two hours to get to this centre. Grab Saturday school by skipping the last few classes? Easy. Being a courier instead of doing homework in the evenings? Satisfaction. I wish they had. They would just take it.

We are not talking about children from dysfunctional families. Many different young people want to make money. This desire is determined primarily not by need, but by the desire to have money that is not responsible to parents. At least a little. Standing in the snow all day to win a thousand rubles is equivalent to winning the lottery. Looks like you’re going to buy this bin? Your phone is thirty times more valuable. A Thousand is a trip to the movies with popcorn and soda. Great, they say. Cinema 16+ that my mom won’t pay for another two years – what could be cooler? As known. But few people risk sharing it with teachers. But social educators and child inspectors are well aware of this.

In general, young people strongly approve of the initiative of the authorities.

Parents look at “new opportunities” differently. Many people find that working out every night after school, or even just on the weekends, is not a good idea. In the ninth grade, it is necessary to prepare for the OGE in the tenth and eleventh grades for the Unified State Examination. Plus, it is necessary to leave time for additional training (not teachers, no – this is part of the main training) for soul lessons: dance, chess, tourism, fashion design circle. Diversified development is important.

But there is another opinion. There are families, it’s simpler so to speak, the adults there think that chess and dance are a kind of whim, but business is a panacea. They say that nothing trains and develops better than work. You know – from ape to human and the like. What comes up for a penny in a nascent personality study for the benefit of an incomprehensible businessman? It’s also unclear what hinders organizing worker training in the family: isn’t it better to help your own grandmother buy food, rather than walking around with a box behind you, handing out hamburgers to strangers? But these questions are not the most interesting ones.

Something much more interesting. Why does the state need all this? What do the authorities want to achieve by proposing to renew the labor front with schoolchildren?

Of course, they refer to the wishes of the workers. In terms of the requests of those who want to register a worker. VTsIOM has already done research, it turns out that nine out of ten high school students want to work. How not to meet them? In general, our officials are very sensitive to the mood of the younger generation. For example, it is difficult for children to learn English and they did not introduce a mandatory USER of a foreign language. Kids don’t want to learn math, so in 11th grade they took the test from basic math so that even a fourth grader would pass it. And here young people want to work. This can only be welcomed.

But there are also side bonuses. This is also discussed without hesitation. For example, the authors of the bill, which removed “extreme requirements for the employment of minors,” believe it will overshadow many areas where adolescent labor is used.

Like what are they? Are these offices that hold parades on rooftops and attract schoolchildren as supporters (“if a cop comes, then you don’t know anyone”) legalized, or what? Okay, shawarma stalls, let’s say in exchange for bonuses, they’re going to direct young people to a legal field. What about conquest? What difference does it make if teenagers spin shawarma illegally or legally without health books, but only take notes from the school medical examination instead of the health book?

They also say that young people should help their parents provide for their families. Of course it’s weird. Because it’s the adults who have to take care of the children, not the other way around. Families who cannot fulfill their financial obligations should be provided with assistance from social services. But our social policy seems to have reached an impasse. They don’t help people with jobs, advanced education, they give people some money in the form of benefits (people even apply to employment centers not to find more jobs, but to correct the fact of lack of income and give a certificate to social security). It can’t go on like this forever, and it means they rely on fresh blood – youth are more resilient, more resourceful and more productive. Well, how the idea will shoot!

Maybe he’ll shoot at a short distance. But what does this mean for us?

Because of their lack of education, experience and qualifications, adolescents can only work in the most basic and low-skilled jobs. Low-skilled jobs are equally low-paying. To earn three kopecks more, you have to work five times harder.

Education can be completely eliminated. And a temporary junior part-time job can easily become the only job available. Many current forty-year-old couriers, waiters, cleaners are people who have been forced to live from the age of 15. I have enough friends like that. Not that they’ve ever worked, no, they’re a little grumpy, but these guys always went to class in high school, then skipped doubles at colleges to deliver more newspapers.

Our field of low-skilled labor is already inflated to the point of obscenity. We’re all included in it. Specialists, students, retirees, mothers on maternity leave who can’t find themselves anywhere. Here are the students. The economy does not need so many people who do not have certain skills and experience. It is not necessary, but ready to digest them, as they have nowhere else to go, but the economy is still not pampered with something more nutritious, tasty and healthy. But the more empty calories, the less energy. The economy is shrinking, wages are falling further and working conditions are getting worse. In the absence of quality (high productivity), the economy needs more quantity to sustain some life. And if pensioners with young people are already doing business, where to get the amount? Sending ten-year-olds to work? They are happy. Especially instead of school. They also want more chocolate.