I worked a teenage job, too. Physical labor.

It was a learning experience, but I don’t see it as this life changing pivot point that separated me from others. In fact, you meet plenty of people at a physical labor job like that who are clearly not on a path to being ahead of their peers, or who have been doing the same work for decades since they were a teenager.

I also know plenty of people who didn’t have any jobs until they graduated college and they turned out fine.

I think some of the lofty claims about teenage jobs being life changing or how teens who don’t get jobs are “mentally stunted” are getting absurd.

It reads like people who have developed a chip on their shoulder about their own upbringings being superior to others because they were more difficult.

Literally nobody wants a job. You do it to get money. People want to do something and not be bored, but that's got nothing to do with jobs.