The Star recently editorialized that teen jobs "are shriveling in the summer sun," and offered several explanations for why this is the case before concluding that teens wasting summers away without working is undesirable. I agree.

The main causes of teen unemployment, as I see it, have to do with progressive policies instead of some unforeseen force at work.

First, and probably most important as far as teen unemployment is concerned, is that progressives keep raising the minimum wage in a misguided attempt to help poor people. Progressives fool themselves into thinking they can set a minimum wage, when in reality it can't be changed from zero. In other words, employers won't hire someone at $8 an hour if a person's labor is only worth $6 an hour.

The group whose labor is worth the least is inexperienced students looking for a summer jobs. They might be happy to work at $6 an hour so they can build enough experience to someday make $8, then $10, then $15, then $50. But they can't take the first step up the ladder of success because progressives have raised it five feet off the ground to try to lift up poor people.

Ironically, their attempt to help has the opposite effect, especially for minorities who have not benefited from a good education.

Two prominent black conservative economists make this point better than I. Thomas Sowell says, "The real minimum wage is zero: unemployment." And Walter Williams, writes, "Reduced employment opportunities is one effect of minimum wage legislation. The minimum wage law has imposed incalculable harm on the disadvantaged members of our society. The only moral thing to do is to repeal it."

Conservatives will also point out that some blacks, other minorities, lower and middle class whites, as well as teenagers face competition from rampant illegal immigration. A job in the fast food industry, traditionally a rite of passage for American teenagers, became dominated by people who spoke English as a second language during the recent waves of illegal immigration.

All is not lost for teenagers, however. The Star wrote about a correlation between how much money a teenager's parents make and the teenager's prospect for summer employment.

But these are teenagers from relatively well-off families and they are also the most likely to find summer employment. Last summer, 44 percent of white teenagers who come from families with income between $100,000 and $150,000 found work.

Those who need the work the most, both for the money and the experience, fare the worst: Only 14 percent of black teens from families making less than $40,000 found work last summer.

We can again thank progressivism for that. Through guilt, liberals have been so eager to give tax dollars to minorities, but are undermining family cohesiveness. Traditionally, a father's role is to bring home money, pay for the electricity, discipline kids when they get out of line, and serve as role model. When Uncle Sam becomes the breadwinner in the family, there is no need for a father anymore. No father means no discipline, no training, no role models. It means broken homes, especially when progressives give perverse financial incentives to women to become single moms and not marry the fathers. Why lose out on all those benefits? The result is higher poverty, higher crime rates, and children who are less prepared to enter the workforce than their counterparts in other families where Uncle Sam isn't the head of household.

Ironically, the progressive's response to the rather sensible arguments I've laid out in this post will be to disregard it, repeat the cry over teen unemployment, and advocate for more progressive policies to fix it. Good luck with that.