Hard Work Solves the Problem

Can the NY Times go one day without spotlighting a group we're supposed to feel sorry for? The short answer is no.

The Times today focuses on young people entering the workforce:

This Labor Day, the 45 million young people in the nation’s work force face a choppy job market in which entry-level wages have often trailed inflation, making it hard for many to cope with high housing costs and rising college debt loads.

Perhaps colleges can ask the left-wing professors to take a pay cut to reduce costs. Anyway, the piece continues:

Entry-level wages for college and high school graduates fell by more than 4 percent from 2001 to 2005, after factoring in inflation, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Economic Policy Institute. In addition, the percentage of college graduates receiving health and pension benefits in their entry-level jobs has dropped sharply.

I wonder if the pension benefits include 401K's.

Some labor experts say wage stagnation and the sharp increase in housing costs over the past decade have delayed workers ages 20 to 35 from buying their first homes.

It continues on like this for the entire article.

You see, in the brave new world of the NY Times, new workers should earn $60K per year as a starting salary and have universal healthcare from day one. Of course the Times neglects to point out that in the past, new employee's were expected to prove themselves and that employment is not a right. You were expected to make your employer money and those that did it well were promoted.

The Times harps on the fact that college tuition costs and high housing prices are increasing the time it takes to buy a house and have children. Why don't they point out that young people have huge debt issues because they but what they want, not what they need. The latest I-pod with carrying case? Put it on your card. The latest cell phone with all the bells and whistles? Charge it!.

Young people have options; they can join military and get their college bills paid off. They can work while in school to defray costs. They can drive a beat-up car until it dies, etc.

I say to the young workers, quit whining and get up before 8:00 AM. Be energetic at your job and don't rush out at quitting time. Take a job that you may feel is beneath you while awaiting the "perfect job".

Lastly, note the picture at the Times site, it is of a young guy in front of a UAW sign (the guy pictured works Caterpillar but the UAW also is the union for autoworkers). Perhaps if the unions were not so zealous in their attempts to extract every advantage from GM and Ford and instead trained their workers to work smarter and more efficiently the state of the US auto manufacturing sector would not be as dismal as it is. Instead of mass layoffs, we'd be talking about increased hiring.