YOUTHS AND HIGH WAGES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 35, 11 February 1943, Page 4

YOUTHS AND HIGH WAGES

WARTIME shortages of labour inevitably create opportunities for young people to secure employment at wages far higher than are usually available to them. Wartime shortages of goods and services restrict the number and variety of ways in which money can be spent. The result is that high spending easily becomes conspicuous, and when it is being done by young people observers form gloomy conclusions about the quality of the rising generation. It *s certainly a fact that some youths of both sexes are being demoralised by the opportunities for loose living which unaccustomed earnings have opened up to them. It is also a fact that others are not, but the use they make of their money is net the subject of public notice and talk.' For every horrid example of gross and sometimes vicious extravagance that is talked about", losing nothing in the telling, there are probably many examples of youths who are making provident and praiseworthy use of their opportunities and fully realise that these opportunities will not last. The possession of money was ever a test of character, and not only in youth. It is being suggested that because some youths are earning high wages and wasting them all youths should' be either prevented from earning high wages, or part of their earnings should be withheld from them. The first proposal is clearly unjust. There are objections to giving a youth a man's work, but if he does it he is entitled to the pay for the job. The withholding of part of the pay appears an easy and commendable way of dealing with an evil, but those who advocate it might well consider how such a system can be administered, how many would presently be needed to administer it, and whether it is really wise to propose an additional method of regimenting the individual to a Government which in such matters usually needs no prompting.