Great article. I see it, too, in the young generation.
And they are raised to vote dependency Democrat from cradle to grave.
These days, Mr. Prager, most people don't have time to know all about a vehicle, inside and out, unless learning that kind of info is an avocation. I certainly don't.
While I get his point, I think this is something of a generational bias (I have it myself).
I don’t doubt the direction Dennis Prager took this in.
I think this is one of the reasons I am so concerned that Google has cornered the market on Internet searches.
They are no friend to the principles this country is founded on, and we know they shape and manipulate the returns on queries for information.
I am closer to the end of my life than the beginning, but this fills me with concern.
How can someone have passion...for a car that looks like every other car on the road, is a technology laden piece of “something” that can’t even be worked on?
Passion? Hemi ‘Cuda. Mustang and Camaro. 55 - 57 Bel Air.
Who can have passion for a car that is no longer fun?
BTW I have a 69 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Talk about FUN!
My son started his new job yesterday. It’s a lab technician job at a local company that’s 85 years old.
He’s keeping his first job (at a national retailer) while starting this one.
On his first day, he was told about an employee that was fired because he made a mistake that cost the company $40k.
He was very worried about this, and we spent time last night discussing how he could avoid making a mistake like that. He was very attentive.
This morning he was up at 7:00 to get ready for his second day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWIQuvbxu0E
I decided exactly what make and model I wanted ahead of time so all that was left was the color and price.
For the price I used the free Truecar
Put in the make, model, colors and it will give a bell curve of prices from dealers around your zip, and tell you who they are, with a recommended price to pay.
The dealers (they cite) will go at least as low as the truecar price,and can be talked down more by playing them against each other.
Dealing with 5 young people teaches you about 5 specific young individuals. Generalizing to an entire population from 5 individuals is not smart.
Hah! Have you tried speaking with a young person on the telephone? Instead of answering the phone with “Hello”...they just grunt. You say “Hi, this is so-and-so”. They say “Yeah, I know.” The entire conversation goes like that until your “Goodbye” is answered by a dial tone.
I can remember classes when we kids were taught telephone etiquette.
We bought a new truck last year and had the exact same experience until we went to a different dealer.
The guy we ultimately bought from was a truck guy. He was also a little bit older (mid-30s) and an avid outdoorsman.
You see a lot of this in socialist countries.
The US is freer than most in some ways but the “progression” has been advancing for several generations.
This is what happens when you keep compromising with communists.
Personally I’ve had enough which is why I avoid rinos.
There are many that seek short term goals and go ape over voting Repub at all cost. I prefer the long game because, as you can see, it’s been working for the commies.
"...I’ll look it up..."
Yet, walk into a Gamestop and any salesperson will be able to discuss any game on any platform to the point of exhaustion....
I think an additional factor may be the social climate young men have been exposed to. If a young man were to try to sell a car, odds are high that he would say something racist. Or sexist. Or otherwise offensive to someone. Just as in the dating world, where one small mis-step can mean criminal charges, in the working world you can goof up without even knowing it. The rules change constantly and in many cases no one is there to support or mentor a new worker. Life is a minefield today.
And so ... why try very hard? Life has become a thankless task in which someone somewhere is going to blame you for something. You’re never going to get it exactly right, so why try? Just show up and get your paycheck.
Willie Loman,,,?
I’ll Google that.
That's easy! I'll google it on my phone. Uh, how do you spell "government"?
Yep. I see it too in my industry.
Actually had a 20-something quit because he want to work at a “socially conscious” business. So he went to Chipotle.
No passion for the job, no passion for anything, just kind of drifting.
They get excited when talking about their next tattoo.
Sad.
Bought my last couple of cars locally, in a middle-class, mostly blue collar area - the sales people I dealt with weren’t motorheads, but they did have a solid knowledge of the models I was interested in, and could answer what questions I had intelligently. They were a good fit for their job, and they appeared to take pride in it.
I just wonder if the kids Prager dealt with had college degrees that they thought entitled them to middle-management-type jobs where their main function would be to tell other people what to do.
This tidbit of information is unrelated to the general theme of Prager's piece--the lack of passion or enthusiasm.
Being able to look something up is extremely useful to people of passion. It expands our base of knowledge and isn't at all indicative of how much or how little passion we have.
That said, I think Prager is correct in his conclusion that these young people have a lack of passion/enthusiasm. They are products of Leftie institutions which hate capitalism.
Consider for a moment what capitalism is. It is an invented term for free markets.
And what are "free markets"?
Free markets, as a term, refers to the active participation of a person in the exchange of goods and services...and ideas.
The difference between the world of "free markets" and socialism (which is the mother's milk of the world from which they came) is the difference between living in the jungle and living in a pen in the zoo.
These young people Prager encountered are zoo animals. They have no enthusiasm for life because they are not actually alive.
They have been provided for by their parents and then indoctrinated by their teachers that they should be provided for by their government.
In their jobs, they are simply waiting for the government to do what they teachers and professors told them it would do.
They are asleep.
IMHO, that is why they lack enthusiasm and passion.