Other than babysitting I did not work when I was a kid except for household chores, and my parents discouraged me from finding a summer job between HS graduation and my first year of college. I did teach swimming classes at the Lake in summer for a very nominal fee, but that was it. My parents struggled financially and we did not have extras, but both of them had to work so hard from very young ages they felt they did not have a childhood, and did not want the same for us.

re: paperboys, the industry changed such that Newspapers no longer wanted or hired kids to deliver papers. Had nothing to do with kids being too lazy to do it. May have had to do with "nobody home" because people are on the go so much these days, so the paperboys weren't able to collect the fees. Also may have had to do with the breakdown of bonafide neighborhoods so that parents didn't feel like it was safe for their young ones to go door-to-door, not knowing their neighbors or communities with people moving so much. Same thing with lawn mowing, only in that instance, it is more like neighbors who don't know each other don't trust neighbor kids in the yard.

I dispute the generalization that kids are lazy these days, though they may often feel entitled. My local grocery is still well populated by high school and community college students bagging groceries. Within the low income populations with whom I have mostly worked, kids work and work hard. Unfortunately, many of them drop out of school to work, when they can find work.