Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

When (Inner-City) Men Won't Work
American Spectator ^ | May 17, 2012 | CHRISTOPHER ORLET

Posted on 05/17/2012 5:28:12 AM PDT by reaganaut1

It is a familiar sight here in the inner-city: young men in the prime of life aimlessly hanging out on stoops at midday, smoking and listening to hip hop music. Government statistics tell only half of the story. One in five American men does not work. It is worse in my hometown of St. Louis where the jobless rate for black men without a high school diploma reached 26 percent last year, and half of all students fail to graduate public high school. Needless to say, that is a lot of young men with nothing to do.

Many of these young layabouts find it unnecessary to work, save on those rare occasions when they need to make a fast buck. Unlike the middle-class suburbs or working class neighborhoods, it takes very few resources to get by in the ghetto. "You would be amazed at the number of persons you can cram into a small non-air-conditioned rental unit," a social worker friend tells me. Their expenses amount to little more than the clothes on their backs, bus tickets, cell phones and cigarettes. This easily can be earned by strolling down to the Temporary Labor Agency and putting in an honest day's work chopping ice or stacking brick, which leaves one free for the rest of the week. Others make a few bucks peddling dope or stealing pipe (a spray-painted sign on a nearby boarded-up building informs would-be thieves that they have already removed all the copper). A few ask for handouts. Many collect Supplemental Security Insurance for real or imagined disabilities.

Even if these aimless youth wanted to work, numerous factors militate against it. Foremost is the lack of good-paying, low-skill manufacturing jobs, the type of work that makes getting off the stoop worthwhile.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-59 last
To: Reeses
You sound like you've been listening to too many “motivational” speakers.

They don't work because they don't have to work so they don't want to work.

Oh they will be more than happy to collect a paycheck, but they don't want to actually work. Actually having to work, Dat be slabery. Been there done that hundreds of times.

They don't want to show up on time, if they even show up at all. They were out late the night before and Da be tired. It's their right not to show up if they don't want to. Having to show up for the job, Dat be slabery.

If you hire them they don't work, you fire them and they collect unemployment.

41 posted on 05/17/2012 7:45:53 AM PDT by IMR 4350
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: SampleMan

Welfare momma’s are just a small part. I blame the men most of all. This world has a critical shortage of moral men standing up and doing right. When a good man leads, many follow.


42 posted on 05/17/2012 7:47:20 AM PDT by vpintheak (Occupy your Brain!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: IMR 4350
You sound like you've been listening to too many “motivational” speakers.

When you go to seminars, you feel like a winner.
When you feel like a winner, you go to Vegas
When you go to Vegas, you lose everything
And when you lose everything, you sell your hair to a wig shop.

Don't sell your hair to a wig shop.

43 posted on 05/17/2012 7:49:16 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1
Cut welfare such as food stamps so that people are forced to work.....

Leave it to the Austin Silly council to produce a survey that only 47% of Austinites eligible for food stamps / Lone Star cards are enrolled in the program. I kid you not.

44 posted on 05/17/2012 7:58:39 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (It's time to take out the trash in DC.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Ain’t that the damn truth.


45 posted on 05/17/2012 7:59:00 AM PDT by IMR 4350
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: vpintheak

Good boys learn from good men.

These men never had anything but momma and Uncle.

They essentially get raised as momma’s boys and then turn feral on the street at 11-16.


46 posted on 05/17/2012 8:40:05 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: yldstrk
Saw it all the time at the Indian Reservation near where I grew up.

We destroyed those people. LBJ took those lessons and destroyed the Black family. Now they are going after the rest of us.

When all you know is addiction and crime, it is very hard to get out.

47 posted on 05/17/2012 8:54:16 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick
Low-skill jobs - unless they have very demanding physical requirements, such as great strength - will naturally tend to offer low pay as well. High-paying manufacturing jobs were the result of a union-government cabal's favoring some low-skilled workers at the expense of the larger economy, both consumers and excluded workers.

Low-skill manufacturing jobs can lead to the acquisition of more skills and better paying jobs.

When you don't have the entry-level jobs because you have no manufacturing, then you have no chance for advancement either.

I agree we should not expect "high paying, low skilled" jobs, but entry-level manufacturing jobs should pay better than not working.

48 posted on 05/17/2012 10:23:41 AM PDT by SoothingDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1
Foremost is the lack of willingness to get off the stoop and go looking for good-paying, low-skill manufacturing jobs, the type of work that makes getting off the stoop worthwhile.
49 posted on 05/17/2012 11:16:51 AM PDT by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yldstrk
You try working when you are addicted and surrounded by people smoking embalming fluid

You try making a life out of the broken morass at the bottom.

So, pick up and leave those surroundings, don't stay there whining about the unfairness of it all.

50 posted on 05/17/2012 11:33:40 AM PDT by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Whatever happened to “welfare reform”? was it all a big scam?

Yes (in the fine print of the bill—the government could keep 30% of its caseload on the dole indefinitely)


51 posted on 05/17/2012 12:41:30 PM PDT by Cubs Fan (whites are 8 times more likely to be victimized by black criminals than blacks by white criminals)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SampleMan

Yep. And there aren’t many very good community leaders out there either. All the jesse highjackson, Al not-so-sharpton, and malik shove-it-up-your-shabazz types are ruining them too.


52 posted on 05/17/2012 1:09:48 PM PDT by vpintheak (Occupy your Brain!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: SoothingDave
... entry-level manufacturing jobs should pay better than not working.

I agree.

53 posted on 05/17/2012 1:12:01 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Remember our veterans, today and every day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: rarestia
LBJ’s “Great Society” completely destroyed any dignity left in the black community.

Not ALL of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17m8OnHC7dQ&feature=player_embedded

54 posted on 05/17/2012 1:46:05 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: GeronL
This is the natural result of publik skoolz and the present kulture plus the inner city mentality against “acting white”.

Schools and learning are "a white thing," as are, apparently names. They do their best to set themselves apart into their own 'culture' and can't figure out why nobody likes them.

Blacks are conditioned from a young age that they're going to be 'b-ball' stars and when that falls apart, what's the next easiest thing to generation money? Drug dealing so they go for that.

55 posted on 05/17/2012 2:57:29 PM PDT by HeartlandOfAmerica ("We have prepared for the unbeliever, whips and chains and blazing fires!" Koran Sura 76:4)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Opinionated Blowhard
A good friend comes from Appalachian Tennessee and he just shakes his head in shame at how his family spends their time stealing cars and living off disability and scamming the system. This is not a “black” or “inner city” problem. The whole freakin country wants a handout or views scamming the system as a way of life.

The 'disability' scam's worse than welfare - and yeah, it ruins people of all colors - perverse incentives - powerful evil.

56 posted on 05/17/2012 3:04:55 PM PDT by GOPJ ( "A Dog In Every Pot" - freeper ETL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

If we were still following Constitutional principles, then the only time we would need federal involvement in environmental regulation would be on federal land, or when one state’s actions or non-actions was impacting a neighboring state. It should be handled just like the commerce clause is supposed to be interpreted. Fat chance of that though!


57 posted on 05/17/2012 3:43:36 PM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Boogieman

That’s why I get irritated at governors who blow hot air and tell people to get off their asses and go to work like the Maine governor did last week. I agree with the sentiment but can’t overlook the fact that most governors aren’t standing up to the feds and blocking the job killing federal regulations and taxes.

They might be surprised at how many do get off their asses and go to work if jobs became plentiful. Sure there will always be the lazy ones but they’d be a whole lot easier to spot and remove from welfare without the cover of those driven to welfare.

Maine is a good example of a state with abundant and underutilized resources. My state of Michigan is another. Right off the top we have the federal great lakes directional drilling ban and a RINO governor too interested in the new green technology economy to unleash the people and let the economy fly.


58 posted on 05/17/2012 4:26:18 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: ROCKLOBSTER
When they get busted, sentence them to pick lettuce. Give the legitimate "guest workers" raises, and let them "manage" the inner-city youts.

I say, like Clayton Williams, introduce them to the 'joys of bustin' rocks.'

59 posted on 05/17/2012 4:28:32 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-59 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson