Maybe it's Amazon's predatory pricing and regulatory capture that drove most other nicer job opportunities out of business.
I used to work retail selling software and games as a teen. It was a nice starter job talking about the things I liked most. There were 7 places I could do that back in the day. Now the kids have only 3 such options in my area. Many areas now have none.
Now the kids can learn to code online or post videos on YouTube or do a hundred other things we couldn’t do. The world moves on.
YouTube pays far below minimum wage for all but a tiny fraction of creators.
All 7 places I could have worked (doing what I enjoyed) as a teen paid above minimum wage.
> Now the kids can learn to code online
Starter coding jobs are increasingly rare in light of AI.
> or do a hundred other things we couldn’t do
Can you name a few that pay at least minimum wage?