There are so many kids in their mid-teens who want to work, who are unable to because businesspeople will prefer to pay older folk to work rather than the same amount to youngsters.
And I have to put my hand up to that.
Would I take the risk of employing an unproven teenager ahead of a more mature person with experience of getting to work on time, dressing appropriately, or just plain turning up for every shift?
Probably not.
The situation is not fair on young people, who need experience in the workforce and that means employers need to be given a bit of a carrot to hire them.
A youth wage will likely get them a foot in the door and from there the teenager can get the work knowledge they need and can show they are worth being paid the minimum wage.
Now safeguards do need to be built in to this. I'd trust many employers about as much as I do politicians.
They need to be stopped from hiring cheaper labour, then sacking them on any old pretext when they have to start paying them more.
And let's consider this.
When does a 16-year-old with a year's experience waitressing fit into the picture?
Surely they should be considered experienced and be deserving of more money?
I would have thought a youth wage needs pay bands that allow for incremental rises as the worker becomes more experienced and useful.
Act's policy may appeal to some, but by treating all teens as cheap labour it is unlikely to grab my vote.
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Not being a fan of people who mistreat animals I did bridle the other day at a report of an Indonesian ratbag who went away on holiday and left his nine dogs with no food.
Andre Lumboga lived on Sulawesi, where they have the lovely custom of not only eating bats and forest rats, but dogs as well. Hopefully Lumboga had a lovely little break - for 14 days - because he soon ran into trouble when he got home.
In fact he didn't even get the chance to unpack - as police found his suitcase at the front door when they went to investigate a terrible pong coming from the house.
What greeted them can only be described as ugly.
Apparently when Lumboga went to see his pooches the beasts were somewhat feral.
They attacked him, bit his head off and proceeded to eat him.
I call that poetic justice.
Now when is wanting a nice little chat transformed into harassment?
Well, according to one Dutch woman, not even when you are calling your "boyfriend" 178 times a day. Although, he didn't agree, saying they had never been in a relationship and she was just stalking him.
And he reckoned being phoned more than 65,000 times a year was not the actions of a sensible person. Not even a loon I would have thought.
Now we know people from the far northern climes are prone to a drink or two, but things seem to have really got out of hand.
This week the Swedish Fire Service was called out on an animal rescue mission with a difference.
Instead of needing ladders to get a cat out of a tree, the firefighters had to gently remove a moose from the branches.
Now here we do have to say that the moose did have a reason for being in the tree. It was drunk.
Fair go, it had been pogging on fermented apples and got rather moosey-eyed.
In its inebriated state not only was the moose seeing pink people, but also some nice little pink lady apples and so got itself stuck trying to get its chompers around them. The fire brigade had to haul on the branches so the exhausted moose could slide out.
The moose had clearly been on a bender as a witness said: "My neighbour recognised it as the animal that almost ran into her car earlier in the day. She was pretty sure the moose was already under the influence."
richard@richardmoore.com
