>Nothing is going to give you more empathy for the people working in those jobs than having done it yourself for at least a couple years.

Have you worked in a restaurant or retail? No one gets more abuse than those workers.

The real reason we want teenagers in low-skilled jobs is to keep wages low. That's it. Not tradition, not social cohesion, not to teach anyone "responsibility" or "empathy" but simply to undercut the labor market, because if more adults worked those jobs, they would be paid more.