Posted on 11/05/2003 7:32:45 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Are America's young people being properly prepared to deal with the real world? That is a question well worth asking. Indeed, Charles Sykes addressed this point in his book Dumbing Down Our Kids when he established eleven facts that Americans are failing to teach their children. The first rule is "Life is not fair — get used to it." The fourth one is "You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself." That is followed directly by "Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping — they called it opportunity." Too many young Americans have no understanding of the American work ethic. You see it in stores where the counter help acts as if they are doing you a favor by waiting on you after they have finished their phone conversation. You see it in fast food restaurants when the waiters and waitresses are unable to process your order efficiently. Complacency is the attitude that permeates much of the American service industry, particularly the younger workers who often act as if the employer is obligated to give them a salary for the least work possible. That is a sad statement about our society and its lack of concern as to the importance of doing a good job. No one in this country is guaranteed a job and I fear that many young Americans are about to learn just how "unfair life can be." Americans do not have to be given jobs. Unfortunately, the jobs may move off shore. Business Week recently reported that more phone service jobs are being located in India. Why? Economics is a big part of it. Just as important, Indians who work the phones are college educated. They handle requests for service with efficiency and courtesy. They make the customer feel valued. In contrast, the article noted that most Americans who man the phones have only a high school education. That may be but I am willing to bet that something else is missing: Good manners, proper diction, and the willingness to apply oneself to do a good and proper job. Right now, many of us in the conservative movement are concerned that more jobs are being sent overseas, particularly high-skilled industrial manufacturing jobs that pay wages that enable workers to support their families. The American workers who hold these jobs are intelligent, skilled and willing to work hard. It is unconscionable that companies are sending these jobs overseas because it is costing us our manufacturing base. We as a country stand to suffer grave consequences if our industrial base is permitted to erode. Government trade and tax policies should not encourage the sending of American jobs overseas. To the extent that the Federal Government's policies do that, changes must be enacted. On the other hand, customer phone service jobs are not positions that require a college degree. They are entry-level positions and, if they are not being done right, then that says something about the people who are doing the work incorrectly. You cannot speak slang. You cannot speak rudely. You need to dress neatly. You must show up to work on time. You must learn all you can about the company you are representing to be of real service to the customer. These are qualities that schools should not have to teach; they are best learned at home by the example set by parents. If their parents are not setting the example and the schools are not teaching it, then life may soon provide them with a hard lesson. A message is being sent to our young people by the shipping of customer service jobs to India. Let's hope that there are enough smart ones to realize that, as Sykes' rule number eight says, "Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT." Otherwise, many young Indians will have earned the jobs that Americans could fill if they were willing to put in the effort required to do the job properly. The promise of American life was the ability to advance oneself through hard work and commitment. Many Americans have played the game by the rules are seeing their jobs sent overseas for the wrong reasons. We will pay a real price for losing those jobs and the manufacturing capability in the long run. Unfortunately, too many young Americans have grown up with a distorted notion of that promise, thinking it meant guaranteed success achieved with little or no real effort. Now, many young Americans may be in for a rude awakening about the world as it really works.
Young people? I talk like this to ADULT liberals.
...and no, they don't quite get it either.
Indians, Chinese ,Malaysians, Mexicans, "earn the job" because they are willing(or are forced) to work for one-tenth, one-twentieth, or one-fiftieth, of American wages, with no benefits, and no safety or health regulations.
To blame "lazy" American workers for multinationals moving jobs to the Third World is sickening.
I'm having visions of Jason Blair.
He signed my copy.
I was no stranger to hard work, doing tough, dirty, minimum-wage construction testing during my summers off, but I saw one guy who took it to the next level. He was a staff physicist on the project I was working on, not a professor, but a fairly senior guy who'd been a Ph.D. particle physicist for a good five or ten years. He had a nice car, a lovely house, and a bunch of pre-teen sons. He was smart, athletic, hard-working--he had it going on at every level.
So one year I'm christmas shopping on a Saturday, and there he is, working the register! He rings me up with a big, friendly smile amid the holiday chaos. I ask him what's going on, and he tells me that, around the holidays, every retailer needs help. You can get a part-time job just for asking, and the hours when they need help are the hours when most people aren't working. The money's not great, but it's more than enough to pay for a very merry Christmas.
I'll bet he did the work of half a dozen teenagers, too.
Once my kids are old enough that I'm not needed as a supplemental mom on the weekends, I expect to do the same.
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