My advise to people under thirty.

I have jumped into this a little late but here is my opinion. Take it or leave it.

I am 29 years old. Grew up on 32 acres in a farming community in SE Missouri. This meant one thing, your jobs were farm or construction. I bailed hay in the evenings in High School AFTER getting home from my labor job for a local small construction company. It was great pay. One thing I noticed on my drive to and from work was the amount of people in the older generation living in run down housing in their older 30's and 40's who didn't have a job and living off stamps/welfare.

Fast forward to now and you still have that same generation complaining about mine. I have guys that I graduated with who started up construction companies, farms etc. None of these I would label as "lazy occupations". Me, well I went to college. I watched my dad break down over 42 years of working for Saint Louis County road crew.

Point being, ALL generations have the "lazy" group. I don't understand the constant complaining of youth.

One last thing, if in fact this generation is "lazy", where do you think they got that from? Who failed them?

Just something to think about.

You are to be commended for your integrity, but most of us are not going to work (or work harder) unless it's to our benefit to do so.

I don't blame people who refuse to essentially donate their labor; I blame the system for making "not working" a viable alternative.

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

So you both seem to miss the fact that has been mentioned several times that "in the south" 8 dollars an hour is a good wage?

Like this post

BTY

8 dollars an hour @ 40 hours is 320 a week. 320 a week times 4 = 1280. Less than your grift from the younger "lazy" generation.

Lets take off his SS contribution to those that worked hard last century... %7.5 of 1280 is 96 dollars he would be contributing to you. Isn't that nice? So for a monthly total of 1184.

Oh I just discovered the above is in error. He would have 6.2% for SS and 1.45% for medicare... or 7.65% taken in grift.

And that is more then I get on SS at 1076 a month. And my friend who is selling his share of that vending company is getting Under 1K a month on SS.

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Oh my, dishes yet to wash and dry

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I'm not praising china... I'm saying you should advocate for the young people in this country to innovate and work in fields where they can succeed financially. That probably also means moving and leaving poor performing areas like the "south" where 8 dollars is a good wage. Which should folks in those areas wish to stop brain drain.... (this is where those smart enough to know; leave and never come back. ) They should revamp their way of thinking or the good ones will leave and the dregs will be all that is left. Exacerbating the problem.

LOL, your really pursuing this argument?

I agree. Almost the same money. No back breaking work. No costs associated with getting to work or tearing up your clothing. Don't even mention that it is not full time work therefore you won't get that much a month.

Because our lazy group ( I am 30) is much larger then the group of people our age who have work ethic and will bust their butt. We are the rare cases. It seems like there is a large % of hard working younger people in your area as with mine in North GA. But in cities there are millions of 30 somethings who have never broken a sweat from a hard days work.

My dad complained about my generation being lazy...his dad complained about the same thing. It's what each generation does probably since time immemorial. Don't take it personally.

I hire a lot of Millennials. I have hired thousands of people ranging from Baby boomers through the Millennial generation. There are exceptional examples in all groups and then there are the slackers which reside in all groups as well.

Each generation has its own set of general characteristics. For example: Baby boomers are more about working their way up the ladder of success, were very loyal but were somewhat reluctant to change. My generation (Generation X) like more freedom in the workplace, are generally eager to learn new skills and less "team oriented" and are not necessarily "blindly loyal".

Millennials, on the other hand are very team oriented. They've always been connected (email, texting, etc) so they like to be networked and get instant feedback. They aren't afraid to ask questions, but often need constant validation that they are on the right track. Because they are the generation of "everybody gets a trophy", they often don't expect to pay their dues. They want to know that what they are doing is valuable to the company…as well as valuable to them and their career. I've noticed that if these workers DO feel what they are doing is valuable to their career...they are highly motivated and productive.

A lot of being successful with employees is knowing what motivates them and capitalizing on what makes the employee tick to make them highly productive.

I've got a couple 18-20 year olds working for me right now that are amongst the best I've ever seen. Work ethic has little to do with age. It's all about upbringing and character. Higher wages might bring them in the door, but it is not going to turn a lazy, unmotivated slacker into an all-star.

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'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.

Friedrich August von Hayek

What's your point?

First of all that has nothing to do with what I was commenting on, and second, I don't buy that premise and never said I did. $8 an hour might be an acceptable beginning wage for someone that is starting out or starting over that needs to eat and pay rent...but I don't think that should be anyone's long term earning goal...and apparently neither does the OP.

Got it? Good.

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'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.

Friedrich August von Hayek

WANTED

Man, preferably a man and woman team, to take care of small acreage farm. Must be willing to live in a rural area. Must be willing to grow a large portion of their own food, including ground cultivation, planting harvesting and preserving.

Couple should be familiar with animal husbandry, particularly small livestock such as chickens and rabbits. Prefer couple that will also undertake to learn how to raise and care for larger farm animals, such as sheep, goats, swine and cattle. Couple should also know they will be expected to occasionally slaughter aforementioned livestock, as it represents part of their food stocks.

Note that work will be physically intensive at times. Lifting will often exceed 50 pounds. Candidates will be able to work long hours in sometimes unfavorable outdoor conditions. Candidates are appraised that the job is 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, with no paid time off.

Salary is DOE, but probably will not exceed minimum wage. There is no benefit package.

Interested applicants should buy a homestead and work their butts off.


Now, according to some posters in this thread, the above economic model constitutes head-banging stupidity. Why would any person want to bust their tails in an enterprise that returns little or no money, not even $8/hr?

Hmmm...

And BTW, I think one thing that builds character is working crappy, labor intensive, lower paying jobs that 1) Reinforces the notion that education and training are valuable tool to attain higher wage, more preferential jobs, and 2) give that individual the power of empathy when they are in a higher ranking job or in management overseeing those jobs.

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'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.

Friedrich August von Hayek

The problem that I am complaining about is as follows
1 You accept a job SHOW UP AT THE TIME YOU ACCEPTED.
2 If you are hired to pull a lever this is not an negotiation pull the lever when it is suppose to be pulled.
3 If you are hired at a job understand that even the boss is working for a boss. In my case I am working for the sawmill itself. Yes it is mine but if I don't get the blade in wood nobody gets paid even me. I get paid more than you because I have more money invested in the project and I AM THE BOSS YOU ARE NOT. This is not a democracy.
I like people and part of my job is to not let you stay at the bottom but help you get the education to rise. If a person was on the ball he could come here and in a few years be making more than the average person working in a skilled job here in this area. He would be able to support a family and have a future for his self. The problem is as when a couple came to work for me, the wife looked at the job and announced that in six week she would be able to take over the head sawyer position and replace me with 20 years on the job. She could not even tell the difference between eastern red ceder and oak but that was irrelevant. Yes she was smoking something and is among the fired.

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Okay, you have now fired 15 people in two years in a small part time business. Then you got on here and decided to advise all people under 30 on how to do things.

What might we have learned?

1.Blanket statements about a group of people, are not really productive.
2.There are several reasons you are not getting good employees, possibly from wages to how and who you hire.

Maybe that is why people are not to receptive to taking your advice.

Well, my son has been working at a dairy farm milking cows since June of 2012. He makes minimum wage. He hasn't gotten a raise since he started. He has some learning disabilities & some vision problems so can't have his license. He will never be able to live on his own. I could complain to them that he should get a raise, after all, he has been there 3 years, works 6 days a week & has only missed maybe 5 days in that whole time because of weather or illness. I really think he would work for free. He loves what he does & the job is perfect for him. Why do I mention this?? Because even with his disabilities we have always taught him to work. He will do the worst grunt job & never complain about it. He doesn't really need the money, he just needed something to do. If the OP were closer my son would work for him in a heartbeat.

Too many kids are growing up watching their parents sit on their butts all day doing nothing. How can we expect their kids to be good workers? Kids learn what they live. Some will turn out well despite bad upbringing, but for the most part, if the parents are lazy moochers sucking off the system, their kids will be too.

The government has made it easier to get money doing nothing. If the benefits were lowered or even dropped after a certain time period, maybe people would start working again. Hunger can be a good motivator. Until that happens we will have a country of takers. Those people will raise their kids to be takers. It is a cycle that needs broken, but until we are bankrupt as a country it will continue.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

Yup. My mom was the High School Sec. A guy walked in asking to put out the word he was looking for a laborer during the summer. Lucky me, my mom volunteered my services(it was $10 an hour!). She told him to make sure I appreciate the college education I am about receive.

Funny enough 15 years later we moved back home and I am not a machine shop supervisor. The funny part is that the shop is owned by the previous mentioned BIL and Sister. I had my foot in the door before I even knew it.

Lower paying yes, I've done labor jobs, Everything from working for a moving company, cutting grass and landscaping, working as labor on construction crews and in the labor intensive precast industry. But I never made min. wage. Never would take a job for less than 10 dollars and that was darn near 20 years ago. Back then it would have been working for around 6 dollars IIRC.

What is telling is the talk of how working for peanuts is somehow noble... IMHO It's dumb. Find better pay. Why waste your time?

Want to know what's funny. Here you could work for a temp agency and make more than the 8 dollars being thrown around as good pay. I did this too. generally got a little better pay than regular low wage jobs and got to work at interesting production plants. (I made wax molds of jet engine turbines for a few weeks. in my late teens. That paid 14 dollars an hour part time after school. )


P.S. The employer can only pay a portion of what the employee can produce. This is absolutely true. Work for an employer that allows you to produce more with your time.

I only know you from your prolific postings here. Disability is an interesting thing. You seem to have the ability to sit a a keyboard and type. That's a job description for work that many partake of every day, many of whom make much more than you garner from your government check. Yet you constantly berate those taking government benefits without knowing each of their true conditions while doing what you condemn.

My initial statement stands. Perhaps if you had worked harder, smarter or made better decisions with the money you did earn you wouldn't be dependent on that government check. Many have, many haven't.

The best hiring advice I ever received was "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys."

Use it as you see fit.