The Progression: Loss Of Stable Families - Loss Of An Education - Loss Of Job Opportunities

I ran across this comment to an article on the First Things blog.

Gordon said: "As a small business owner for the past 19 years, in the Pacific Northwest, I have been the beneficiary of good times and now the bad. But the most consistent thing I have noticed in all of these years is the steady decline in the competency of the potential employees. I personally have attributed it to the decline in the quality of public education. There is no emphasis on "Reading, writing and arithmetic". I have slowly come to the conclusion that it is more than that. Today's young, and lots of older people, have no "try". They have no clue about what it is to work your butt off, take a lot of crap from people who feel threatened when they see you do that, brush that aside, and keep on going. I began working at age 6. The adults in charge of me gave me a responsibility, expected me to complete it, and if I did not, let me know about it. It did not wound me permanently when they called me to task. They did it with forethought, care, and I think with what they considered love. I have worked every day of my life since. I am 56 years young. I may consider retirement in 10-15 years.

Peace and God Bless, and may Christ be the center of your life."

This sounded like how I was brought up to respect a hard days work. Although my first paper route, carrying for the Columbus Dispatch, was when I was 8. I do remember, at age 6, pulling my wagon full of vegetables, from my fathers "victory garden", around the block and selling them to neighbors to help my family get along.

The article Gordon was commenting on "Americans Who’ll Never Work Again", was a good analysis of the unemployment crises. But Goldman's capitulation to the tired old liberal answer of a government work project as a solution should be anathema to an admitted conservative.

An additional point of the article was that those with less education are suffering greater joblessness rates. I think it goes further back, in that those who "have no try" as Gordon says, don't "try" in school to get an education. This is a result of our welfare and education systems that have helped to destroy the American family and its influence on the children.