After snoozing part of the evening watching football, I woke up early and was not thinking of anything in particular when I remembered part of a TV interview I saw a long time ago. I remembered an old guy telling a story about workers and equating their labor to some social meanings that did not impress me much at the time. I seemed to remember the guy's name so I decided to Google him. There on Youtube was Eric Hoffer being interviewed by Eric Sevareid. I saw this in 1967 so my recollection was a little fuzzy but so was my attitude towards the man and what he had to say. I think I was pretty closed minded then regarding the relationships between labor and capital so most of what he said kind of bounced off of my mind shield. Doing just a little reading about his views, I came across something I really liked. He proposed that our first real job provides a transition from adolescence to maturity and that the very poor AND the very rich never experience this transition and live in a perpetual state of adolescence. The more I think about this, the more I see that the behavior of those in the ghetto is like an irresponsible teenager in an adult body. The naiveté of the privileged, starry eyed liberal rich is like the child that knows that daddy will step in and solve all those bad old problems for us.
Hoffer thought 2 years of mandatory service would be a solution but that is where I get off. I think that the solution is for government to get out of the way and let the private sector take on the task. Look how much more mature "the greatest generation" was and how hard they had to work to get started in life. My father drove a grocery delivery truck when he was 12 years old! No government license. No minimum wage. Six kids in the family and all had to contribute to keep the family above water. He graduated from HS in 1933, was offered a basketball scholarship but turned it down because he had to take a job to help the family. No food stamps, medical insurance, unemployment compensation just brains, muscle, sweat and perseverance.