Current mood: lazy
Category: Life
I have been thinking of how hard our parents worked compared to us. And of how hard our grand-parents worked compared to our parents. The walking twelve miles in the snow stories are on the verge of extinction. Only partly due to technology, we have become probably the laziest generation ever. And it's not just the kids. It's us.
One day this week I was at work (I thought it'd be a good day to go into work.), I had two test drives one hour apart. On the first test drive I passed a kid on a bus stop. An hour later, the same kid on the same bus stop. Chillin. No worried look. Not starting to walk down the road. Just sitting on the same bus stop.
I would walk. I move slow but I have to keep moving. I know a bunch of my friends have made the late night walk from Burboun back to Xavier. I have made that walk in the day time. I am loathe to wait on a bus (if I have to) out here. Hell, how can a bus beat me getting anywhere. There are bus stops on every block out here. EVERY BLOCK...AND PEOPLE AT THE STOPS! The school buses stop at each individual house. For High Schoolers! I could understand small children and people worrying about getting snatched. But have you seen these High Schoolers? No one wants to snatch them crazy ass kids. I don't even like walking or standing too close to them. (Here comes a "When I was in high school..." story.
When I was in High School the rule was we shouldn't have to walk more than a mile. Sometimes that worked out, sometimes we had towalk that full mile. Sometimes I walked home from school. The walk was 30 to 45 minutes and the bus was 40 to 60 minutes. I have woken up at 3:30 in the morning to catch the bus at 5:30 for jobs.
Another day (actually every other day) some young adult comes to my lot wanting to put down $200 on a $7500 car (Our highest price). I offer to show them an 88 or 92 for $500 that may need some work, but they "need a car that's running good", they "need the 2002 Impala". They can't take the bus because the walk is like fifteen extra minutes. They have to get up at 5 to get to work. Poor kids.
And then I was standing in line at the post office and one of the employees and a customer were talking about the jobs being out sourced and all the lay offs lately.
Now I will be the first to complain when some Indian named "Susie/Chris" aka Sucheyallah/Chutneyandbeanrice can't understand my English Dialect (wasn't that an English colony?). But today, with all this laze lounging around me, I ask what business owner wouldn't want to save some money and get harder workers? I have to face it - America is SO lazy that Americans don't want to hire Americans.
Even in this so called "recession" the work is here. The sad truth is no one wants to hire Americans. Contractors will hire an all hispanic crew before any others. So much so that bilingual subcontractors have their own enterprise putting together crews for people. (Look on craigslist for a bilingual contractor and see what you get) American builders of airplane parts are being exposed for using usafe practices leading to the rise in crashes of late.
When does it end? Do we all just get on welfare and buy "American" made products shipped to us from the other side of the world? Does McDonalds become a sit down restuarant not because the quality gets any better but because the workers are so lazy that the microwaved food takes 30 mins to an hour to prepare? Do we deliver our own mail because the drivers who had their seats moved to make it easier to reach the mail box on the curb don't feel like getting out of the truck to hand you a package that won't fit in the box?
What happened to wanting to be better than our parents? For their sakes. Our parents took care of us (A ton of them were single!), worked two or three jobs sometimes, drank way too much coffee and did way to many uppers to get the job done to build this country for us. Am I the only one noticing UPS and FEDEX slowing down?
I'm just saying...
Nice work! Interesting because wasn't it our parents and grandparents that said to us when we were little(and Jay Z), "I went through that so you wouldn't have to go through that" or "We work had so when u grow up u wouldn't have to work as hard to get the same things accomplished"? Intelect is one thing that dont see a lot of today accross the board and brotha u got it!
JR
Thank you! Thank you! My lone reader it looks like lately. I'mma have to buy you a drink or ten.
So it is up to us then to instill a work ethic. But what happens when the children unionize and start making demands. Will Chinese and Indian adoptions go up?
