When I worked for IBM, they paid female engineers quite a bit more than males. It was galling, but we were told that is just the way it was and we had to deal with it.
While I was delivering papers at 11, the infrastructure for that is no longer available. My suggestion is that he help neighbors with yard work for minimum wage. $4 per hour goes to the neighbor he owes and he keeps the rest. Debt is paid after 25 hours of labor. of course, the likelihood of that sort of kid actually doing and real work is very slim.
"What If" is pretty neat, but only in small doses. I tried to read all of them and got lost. Not on the physics or math. On the whiplash assumptions he needs to make the questions answerable.