I was appraising a house last week for a guy who happens to be in HR at Boeing. We were chatting a little bit and the discussion came around to hiring people. I was asking him questions about what Boeing is looking for in employees as I have a 21 year old nephew who is sort of looking for a job. This gentleman told me that Boeing is having 2 issues in hiring. 1) English as a first language is an issue. The minorities that they hire, particularly Asian and Russian, are great workers but by not speaking English they are very hard to communicate with, and 2) Boeing is having trouble finding younger people who want to work. It seems that many younger people get hired and figure out that they will have to work second shift. They last about 6 weeks and they quit because they cannot spend the time they want with girlfriends/boyfriends and their social lives. I found it interesting and it all brought me back to my 21 year old nephew. He should be in his junior year of college but after 2.5 years he doesn't have his AA yet. He is employed by Lowes but only works 16 hours a week because his girlfriend, who isn't gainfully employed, goes mental every time he is at work and not with her. My wife's company was hiring for warehouse employment and the starting pay was around $13 a hour. Nephew was interested and my wife got him an application. He didn't turn it in "because he didn't have enough gas in his truck to get to Fife". He lived 2 doors away from us and could have returned it to my wife or applied online.

Unfortunately, I think we have created a large population of young people who cannot or will not get enough motivation to improve themselves and it all starts with being dependable, getting out of bed, and showing up on time. Work ethic is slipping away slowly and when I see statements like this one: "People need to have livable wages, pensions that they can live on, health care that does not bankrupt them or their grand-kids, an education without decades of loans, representation that is not beholden to a lobbyist, corporation or other special interest and to know that if that company is not going to act responsibly our representatives will!" it makes me wonder why the other side of the coin doesn't get the air time it deserves. Namely, establishing a work ethic at a young age, responsibility for your own actions, and actually learning something that will benefit yourself and society.