I don't think that this is an invasion of privacy issue. I think that people need to start being less naive about the internet.

I agree with you about the comments, they are harsh. I don't like the anti-Worcester sentiment in some of them.

I have been thinking of this quite a bit and not to hijack the thread and make it all serious when the original post is something light and funny, but...

I mean what about living here makes it impossible to succeed? There are so many job and so many ways to work your way out of whatever type of corner you or your upbringing may have put you in. Is it that due to upbringing that people feel such hopelessness?

I mean yeah, you might not get a job making enough to buy an HDTV, the new Jordans or a nice set of spinners but you can definitely find a job making enough to support yourself.
The entry level job that I got 7 years ago in my company pays about 35 grand a year and any dude can do it and you only work 4 days a week. AND it's on the commuter rail and we still have a hard time filling positions there as well as warehouse positions.

People just don't want to bust their ass and I don't have sympathy for them, I'm sorry. They know in their heart what they are getting into and what the consequences might be getting into the drug trade and gangs. It's a choice they make not just so they can have enough to get by, but so that they can live large and have gold, and cars and all the other things that TV says that being a thug provides.

I am sure there are some very sad cases of folks who probably just could of used some counseling and someone to talk to who cared, but I can't believe that this is the case with the majority. There are so many good honest jobs out there. It's just a question of what you are willing to do.

I always think back to this awesome quote a friend sent me that I didn't write down for some stupid reason so I always have to paraphrase it when I use it. It said something to the affect of, "Societies will find themselves at all time lows when they are at a stage when people find it beneath them to work with their hands." God, how much construction is going on in town right now? Get a friggin job for god sakes!

But for sure, there is an almost evangelical fervor about this work philosophy -- no stick, all carrots. And believe it or not, all this prodding, praising, peddling, cajoling and psychobabble is worth $50 billion a year in business. Ain't America great?

Where else you find free back rubs for the deserving worker bee. What’s wrong with a happy workplace and taking your time to grow up?

"Could this be that everything is being delayed so that adolescence ends at 30 say and middle age starts at 60 say?" Safer asks Jeffrey Zaslow.

"You can hope that's the case. But, while we're having this delayed adolescence, are we getting behind as an economy and as a workforce, because we're just all playing computer games at work while we wait to grow up?" he replies.

For all the complaining, Dorsey and Healy believe their generation will transform the office into a much more efficient, flexible and yes, nicer place to be. But until then, a message to bosses everywhere: just don’t forget the praise.

"We want to hear it and truly we'd love for our parents to know. There's nothing better than Mom getting that letter saying, 'You know, Ryan did a great job. Yeah, I just wanted to let you know you raised a fantastic son,'" Dorsey says.

"Send it to grandma, too," Healy adds, laughing.

 Great article. Mostly dealing with office stuff though. I am mainly talking about entry level, laboror type jobs and the fact that folks who are desparate for money don't seem to see them as viable job choices anymore. I mean, you get a walk on job as a construction laboror and you bust your ass and prove yourself dependable you will get picked up as a permanent worker and be making serious serious money.

The article does bring up an intresting point though, if I can quote two things in it.

This one:

So who's to blame for the narcissistic praise hounds now taking over the office?

And this one: 
 

"I remember my dad getting laid off and all these things growing up. And that's 'cause they sacrificed for the company. Well, the first knee jerk reaction from me is I sure don't want to do that. I'm going to be in it for me and I'm going to make it work," Dorsey says.

Somewhere during our parents generation, probably due to the sheer number of baby boomers companies just started to not value their employees. From what I have read about our grandparents generation it seems that employers valued their employees more. You got a job with a company and I think the employer hoped that you would stay for 30 years and the employee also hoped that he or she would stay for 30 years. It's a home type thing, you know? If you are constantly in transition then you won't lay down roots anywhere and fight to make something better. If you look at your job as disposable or your employees as disposable then you aren't going to have a good workplace environment and you aren't going to produce well either.

In "The Working Poor," author David Shipler explains that poverty is relative to the surrounding wealth. So, people can criticize someone's desire for Jordans and an HDTV. But in American culture, those are golden idols and most have and flaunt, making those without feel very poor. Ask yourself who you feel poor next to.

Maybe you're an enlightened individual who works hard and desires little. As F. Scott Fitzgerald says in the intro. to "Gatsby," count yourself lucky. A kid who grows up poor, in an environment of low education, little money, and few connections in the workplace, nevermind gangs prowling and killing outside their door, grows up with different horizons and has markedly different ideas of success. This isn't a new problem. It has existed in America for centuries. The modern industrial version is pretty stark, though.

The old "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality is as good as Nancy Reagan's "Just say no," and Doug Chapel's saying, "Hey, poor. Why don't you strive for more and live like the upper middle class, full of virtue, but with enough money to buy an education and beg a job from uncle sucker."

Lastly, America is in a recession, and jobs are not hanging on trees as you suggest. Minimum wage is lower today than thirty years ago, and benefits are hard to come by. Thank huge Washington lobbyists like McDonald's and other fast food restaurants, and especially, Walmart. Dont', however, kick the poor. They are simply an easier target than the real perpetrators of these crimes: massive US corporations and corrupt politicians.

Gabe, I completely admire the ones who succeed in climbing the socioeconomic ladder, but I think you vastly oversimplify the process, and give way too much credit to those of us who make a living. Isn't any of the credit for our success due to a nexus of support from family, religion, nationality, and race? (I know that mine is.) I personally have not worked harder than anyone else. I have been fortunate to have caught some breaks, from the fate that had me born to sober, conscientous parents, articulate in English, to the benefits of being white and male. Most of my acquaintances seem to have caught the same break. I can write it all off to sucking it up and busting my ass, but it would be a lie. The poor and minorities usually have to bust their ass a lot more than I do.

I don't want to lift all responsibility from them, especially if they are employed in work that sheds blood, but no one with good choices would elect those professions. It's not unlike boxing. The lowest socioeconomic group of any time period is ususally overrepresentative to the sport. Why? Who else wouldopt to make their living doing such difficult and painful work?

And who buys the drugs that keep these gangsters at it?

I'm happy for your Main South friend. It's a success story. But during the generations that it takes for each new immigrant group to make it in America, countless lives are lost - to depression, drugs and drink, street violence, and other wayward lifestyles. Our media is saturated with it: The Godfather, Scarface, American Gangster.

What kind of company do you work for, and what qualifications are required for the $35k job?

I don't make excuses for what goes on in the 'hood; but I won't make excuses for those that create the 'hood and allow for conditions that lead to ghettos, etc.

The guilty here are not the poor; it is those who create conditions of poverty.

Also guilty, in my eyes, are those who've become so self-absorbed and misguided by free-market capitalism to believe that we are all self-supported, individual agents, and not interdependent. The attitudes of cynicism and apathy are more corrosive than the shootings.

As I had said earlier, it's no surprise that your Baltimore contingent, who, as you described, live in hellacious conditions, don't give a shit about the menial job being offered. The conditions run much deeper than whether they care enough to hand in the paperwork and work hard.

There was a little blurb about this incident in the "On The Web" sidebar of the December 13th edition of Rolling Stone.

They even included the picture but blurred out the kids face though.