I can’t resist calling your attention to a young woman’s situation from the Wall Street Journal’s series on “Generation Jobless:”
Summer Forbes, 19 years old, dropped out of her Hartford, Conn., high school at 17. It ‘wasn’t for me,’ she says. She spends her days hanging out with friends, completing the requirements for her diploma through an online program and checking Craigslist for job ads.
Two years ago, she managed to find a temporary job she liked at a day-care center. But when it ended in the summer of 2009, she found that she couldn’t get back into the field without her certification for early-childhood education.
You need a license to baby sit?
Writing on "The Corner," Nicole Gelinas, a contributing editor to City Journal (and one of my favorite commentators on economics) notes:
Isn’t this one of the problems hobbling our economy?
Why does a young woman need a “certification” — which doubtless requires her going into debt — or even a high-school diploma to babysit pre-schoolers?
If Ms. Forbes likes children, is willing to work, and isn’t on the local sex offenders’ list, then she is qualified for this job, certification or not.
So, really, this is an instance of government-created unemployment, isn’t it?