[nop]

What you are saying for about kids working is definitely not true for my part of Europe. I've had plenty of friends from rich families growing up and if anything they tend to be more likely to get a summer job and I can't in the slightest imagine anyone getting embarrassed over their children having a blue collar summer job.

Just because you are rich it doesn't mean you get everything you point at and even still it's quite satisfying for any young person to know hes earned something.

I on the other hand come from the lower classes, pretty much as low as it gets in Sweden and I've never felt the need to have a summer job because of income.

[dimitar]

My observation is that richer kids do find jobs more easily because they and their parents usually have plenty of connections. They usually do this so they would have more money to party :-).

Also regulation in many places in Europe effectively limits teenage employment - until I turned 18 I had to either get something like 9 documents or work for money paid under the table for someone I knew before.

Please remember that Europe is far from homogeneous, so observations may vary wildly. :-)