Amity Shlaes dares not tell you a major cause of high teen unemployment (Glenn Reynolds)

Amity Shlaes is a Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow and writes a column for Bloomberg News. As such, acknowledging that massive low-skilled immigration just might be a major cause of massive teen unemployment is something that she dare not do lest she be drummed out of the establishment.

The first recent example of her failing to acknowledge immigration as a cause is in June 27's "Blame Minimum Wage for Youth Joblessness" (link) which is similar to a later attempt by the Wall Street Journal to blame the minimum wage. Still looking for a clue, on July 1 she offered "Should We Blame Grandpa for Teen Joblessness?" (link). The chart showing a precipitous drop in the teen labor force participation rate and a steady but not precipitous rise in the 65+ years old rate should have been a clue, as should the fact that older people simply aren't able to do many of the jobs that young people can do and vice versa. Someone who's 70 can't do a lot of gardening work, and someone who's 16 probably isn't going to be able to get a job as a bank teller.

Note that the second is promoted by Glenn Reynolds, who quotes yet another of his readers and closes by running down younger Americans: "Well, given that old folks canโ€™t afford to retire nowadays, at least they have that work ethic to fall back on." (instapundit . com/123602)

All of this is yet another example of the Fiscal Con; see the link for a description and other examples.

Note also that the dropping youth participation rate is due in large part to the policies supported by those in the Shlaes "Profits at any Price" orbit, and no doubt the rising older workers participation rate is due in large part to other policies pushed by those same people.