[JimPrevor]

It is always the case that those who don’t want to work will point to the mismatch between the work available and their skills. Indeed, many of the proposals Brooks mentions, such as expanding community colleges or paying people unemployment while they start businesses, are just another way of helping people avoid the necessity of taking the jobs that might actually be available.

[Gene Eric]

Prepare to get your butt slapped.

[Amberdawn]

Since when do Conservatives want an activist government? Citing the Rino Brooks isn’t a good place to start, although I’m all for the discussion.

[Lazlo in PA]

It will probably require a broad menu of policies attacking the problem all at once: expanding community colleges and online learning; changing the corporate tax code and labor market rules to stimulate investment; adopting German-style labor market practices like apprenticeship programs, wage subsidies and programs that extend benefits to the unemployed for six months as they start small businesses. Reinvigorating the missing fifth — bringing them back into the labor market and using their capabilities — will certainly require money.

And there are still people who refer to Brooks as a Conservative with a straight face?

[End Times Sentinel]

Why would you use David Brooks as an example of a conservative thinker? Maureen Dowd not write any columns you could cite as of late?

[kearnyirish2]

The fact that affirmative action doesn’t factor into the article is strange; it is practically illegal to hire a white man today, and you certainly can’t pay him as much as an affirmative action token female employee.

I remember the recent news stories about the alarm caused by the fact that college classes were approaching 60:40 female to male ratio; 59:41 was somehow acceptable, but 60:40 might draw more scutiny. White women should stop complaining about the lack of available men for marriage; they’ve been legally marginalized, and now resemble their urban counterparts. You reap what you sow...

[RegulatorCountry]

One big problem conservatives face ... David Brooks"

There's your problem. David "Crease" Brooks is enamored of government because he is no conservative. The best that can be said is that he is somewhat less hostile to conservatism than your run of the mill media natterer.