Free Republic

“The Big Issue, mate?” came the cheery Cockney cry. It is a tradition, in London as elsewhere, for newsboys to hawk their papers on the streets of the city. The only variation to the ancient ritual was that in this instance the salesman for The Big Issue – a newspaper sold by and for “the homeless” – was pitching his wares to me while lying prone alongside a colleague on the sidewalk of a small side street off Piccadilly. I stepped over him and continued on my way. That was Monday. Tuesday he was there again, and Wednesday. And on...

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville worried that free, capitalist societies might develop so great a “taste for physical gratification” that citizens would be “carried away, and lose all self-restraint.” Avidly seeking personal gain, they could “lose sight of the close connection

Sometimes unrelated events nevertheless tell a coherent story. One newspaper story that caught my eye recently was about two high-powered schools in South Korea where Korean girls study 15 hours a day, preparing themselves for tests to get into elite colleges in the United States. Harvard, Yale and Princeton already have 34 students from those schools. When a copy of the 50th anniversary report on members of the Harvard class of 1958 arrived in the mail recently, I thought back to one of my fellow students in that class who had worn a hole in the sole of his shoe...

** EXCERPT ** WASHINGTON: Call her a Honky Tonk Woman: Hillary Rodham Clinton is a big fan of the Rolling Stones. Speaking to reporters aboard her campaign plane Sunday morning, the Democratic presidential contender said she was eager to see "Shine a Light," the new documentary about the legendary rock band that was directed by Martin Scorsese and opens Friday. Clinton said she attended her first Stones show as a high school senior in 1965, and has seen them a few times since then. She praised Mick Jagger, the band's 64-year-old lead singer, and said she admired his work ethic....

In 1630, as the Arbella lay at anchor off Southampton, England in preparation for its journey to the New World, John Winthrop proclaimed to his fellow passengers that “we shall be as a city upon a hill.” By mid- century the notion of an exemplary New England, a light for nations of the world, had seized the imagination of New England’s cultural establishment. “And thou New England,” wrote Peter Bulkeley, one of its chief ministers, “which are exalted in privileges of the Gospel above many other people, know thou the time of thy visitation, and consider the great things the...

Young Workers' Expectations Clash With Reality By LISA OSBURN   Bridgett Jones Short, foreground, owner of Jucos Salon in Birmingham, Ala., says that her 20-year-old hairstylist, Jordan Corley, background, is very mature for her age. Short is working on the hair of Leigh Ann Smith and Corley is working on Robin Zimmerman; both customers are from Hoover. (Photo by Beverly Taylor)     BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Sporting their "princess'' T-shirts and $100 sneakers, members of Generation Y grew up hearing they could conquer the world.Many of their parents started them on that journey with laptop computers, vehicles, cell phones, high-speed...

GENEVA — American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year. They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity." The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries (SNIP) America's increased productivity "has to do with the ICT (information and communication technologies) revolution, with the...

GENEVA — American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year. They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity." The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg...

GENEVA - American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year. They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a U.N. report released Monday, which said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity." The average U.S. worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all other countries, the International Labor Organization said in its report. Ireland comes in second at $55,986, followed by Luxembourg...

The New York journalist, and I use the term "journalist" generously, was attempting to take me to task for claiming that slovenliness and laziness are unnecessary choices anywhere, anytime, but especially in America. I had just explained to him how, as a child of a lower middle-class family living on the outskirts of Detroit in the roaring 1950s, I got nothing unless I earned it. We did without. We were frugal by design. You want a guitar, kid? Get a job. Or two. I went into detail how my mother and father loved me and properly parented us kids in...

The New York journalist, and I use the term "journalist" generously, was attempting to take me to task for claiming that slovenliness and laziness are unnecessary choices anywhere, anytime, but especially in America. I had just explained to him how, as a child of a lower middle-class family living on the outskirts of Detroit in the roaring 1950s, I got nothing unless I earned it. We did without. We were frugal by design. You want a guitar, kid? Get a job. Or two. I went into detail how my mother and father loved me and properly parented us kids in...

Wal-Mart's attendance policy criticized By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer 35 minutes ago NEW YORK - At Wal-Mart these days, snowy weather is no longer an excuse for lateness. It had better be a natural disaster like a hurricane or blizzard. And being 10 minutes or more tardy for work three times will earn you a demerit. Too many of those could get you fired. It's all part of a revised attendance policy implemented earlier this fall that makes Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hourly workers more accountable for excessive unexcused absences and formalizes such penalties. The new rules already are drawing...

This is a letter I just got via email from Dem headquarters. I hope there will be many comments on here about what this says regarding Democrat jobs (if any) being rather non-essential -- not to mention the slack work ethic it expresses. Why do I get mail from them? You could, too, if you'd play a few games with the idiots. Here goes: Dear -------, Four weeks from today, what will you be doing? On November 7th, America will vote. All the polls say that people have had enough. We're poised to win historic victories up and down the...

The Committee of 100 survey that I have mentioned here in the past asked the question of American opinion leaders - Americans were asked - What are the most admirable traits of the Chinese and their culture? Here are numbers four through one. 4. Commitment to Education - 13%. The Chinese are indeed diligent students. The only people I know who study harder than the Chinese are their children. Oh!, they are Chinese, too, I suppose. 3. One in six - the History - 16%. China has a looong history, and everything that was discovered, created, or found was done...

May 02, 2006, 6:43 a.m.Putting on the RitzKids today. They've lost something precious: a work ethic. By Jennifer Graham In a heart-warming gesture of concern for our nation’s stressed-out youth, the Ritz-Carlton has announced that it will offer concierge services to a quarter-million college students in Boston. “Every parent wants to pamper their child when they’re going through the daily agony of college,” explained Ritz spokeswoman Caron Le Brun, demonstrating that you, too, can become a public-relations professional without mastery of basic grammar. Who needs college, anyway? But for kids with $150K to blow and nothing better to do,...

<p>Failure in the classroom is often tied to lack offunding, poor teachersor other ills. Here's athought: Maybe it's thefailed work ethic of todays kids. That's what I'm seeing in my school. Until reformers see this reality, little will change.</p> <p>Last month, as I averaged the second-quarter grades for my senior English classes at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., the same familiar pattern leapt out at me.</p>

LONDON: Second-generation Indian immigrants are breaking their adopted country's class barriers with consistent ease and steaming ahead of much of white, black and brown Britain, new research has found. The research, which tracked 140,000 children born in England and Wales over a 30-year period, found that a massive 56 per cent second-generation Indians sailed over class barriers and went into professional or managerial posts, compared with just per cent of white children. In a further breakdown of what it called the "Indian success story", the study added that Being Hindu or Jewish enhanced the probability of a professional/managerial class outcome,...

Hawaii citizens see it as a mark of distinction that they have a high cost of living -- because every justification and demand for a wage increase is not based on merit or increased productivity, but on the cost of living and the cost of living adjustment based on the rate of inflation. Therefore, it is desired that the rate of inflation be as high as possible, not realizing that wage increases fueling inflation may decrease their buying power, and value they receive for their exchanges. The highest inflation is when all the money in the world gets one nothing...

Some call them slackers. Others are more diplomatic. But whatever the moniker, "Generation Y" associates are getting a bad rap for what some say is a flabby work ethic and an off-putting sense of entitlement. Attorneys from Generation Y -- those born in 1978 or later -- are plenty smart and generally well educated, say firm leaders and industry experts. But these young attorneys also are lacking in loyalty, initiative and energy, so the criticism goes.

A businesswoman has been banned from asking for 'hard-working' staff in a job ad because it discriminates against the lazy. Beryl King was told by a Jobcentre that her advert for warehouse workers discriminated against people who were not industrious. Beryl, 57, told the Daily Mirror: "I couldn't believe my ears. Has our world gone mad? "I've been running my business for 27 years and it's getting harder to find people who want to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. "How long before someone says you can't pay people for working because it discriminates against those...

Bienvenue, good morning and welcome to the latest cultural nougat from the auld alliance. A tale of treachery and guile, present smiles and absent hearts. For all of France is ablaze with Bonjour Paresse (Hello Sloth) - the long-awaited sequel to the smouldering 1950s ingenue hit Bonjour Tristesse. What a lot has happened to our heroine since she confided her youthful lusts to Francoise Sagan all those years ago. The flaky 17-year-old has shed her pedal-pushers and her fondness of father figures and has gone out to work. Mais oui. Wisely (considering aforementioned fondness for older men) she has even...

ARIS, Aug. 13 - Finally, instead of dissembling behind ambiguous notions of Gallic joie de vivre, someone in this leisurely land has declared outright that the French should eschew the Anglo-Saxon work ethic and openly embrace sloth.Corinne Maier, the author of "Bonjour Paresse," a sort of slacker manifesto whose title translates as "Hello Laziness," has become a countercultural heroine almost overnight by encouraging the country's workers to adopt her strategy of "active disengagement" - calculated loafing - to escape the horrors of disinterested endeavor."Imitate me, midlevel executives, white-collar workers, neo-slaves, the damned of the tertiary sector," Ms. Maier calls...

In Europe, nothing happens in August. It is not, of course, that everyone is on holiday. Many readers of this column will be among the unhappy few who are still slogging in to work. But notice the half-empty commuter train, the uncannily smooth flow of traffic at rush hour. Notice, too, that virtually no serious decision can be taken in the office throughout this month, because there is always at least one key executive on holiday. London in August is lethargic. On close inspection, a large proportion of the people in the city are, in fact, foreign tourists. The impact...

In Europe, nothing happens in August. It is not, of course, that everyone is on holiday. Many readers of this column will be among the unhappy few who are still slogging in to work. But notice the half-empty commuter train, the uncannily smooth flow of traffic at rush hour. Notice, too, that virtually no serious decision can be taken in the office throughout this month, because there is always at least one key executive on holiday. London in August is lethargic. On close inspection, a large proportion of the people in the city are, in fact, foreign tourists. The impact...

Daughter of Thailand PM Gets Burger Job Mon Mar 29,12:02 PM ET BANGKOK, Thailand - If Paetongtarn Shinawatra thought she could keep a low profile Monday on her first day working at McDonald's, her hopes were dashed when her father, Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, dropped by for a takeaway. Thaksin, who became one of Thailand's richest men by investing in telecommunications, let the phalanx of reporters trailing him know that even in the family of a billionaire, the younger generation must learn the value of money and hard work. "Thai kids, when they finish school, they don't know how...

              www.jsonline.com               Return to regular view Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/bym/biz2biz/jan04/201398.asp Talking about hard work of past would do black youth a favor Posted: Jan. 20, 2004 Small Business Tannette Johnson-ElieE-MAIL  |  ARCHIVE   My grandmother picked cotton to help feed her five children. And my mother, just a teenager in the Jim Crow South in the late '40s, often worked alongside her under the scorching Louisiana sun.If you are an African-American in this country, chances are someone in your family picked cotton somewhere along the line. Because of...

Natia Samkharadze doesn't recall ever thinking about money when she was growing up in Soviet Georgia. Housing was subsidized, education and medical care were free, and lifelong employment was guaranteed -- so paying for things wasn't a big concern. Now an Atlanta resident, the 30-year-old insurance agent and mother of two says she and other immigrants from formerly Communist countries are, like the rest of us, intensely interested in financial matters. Few immigrant groups would seem as ill-suited to American-style capitalism as those from formerly Communist countries where words like "entrepreneur" and "speculator" were insults. But Atlanta has become home...

Are America's young people being properly prepared to deal with the real world? That is a question well worth asking. Indeed, Charles Sykes addressed this point in his book Dumbing Down Our Kids when he established eleven facts that Americans are failing to teach their children. The first rule is "Life is not fair — get used to it." The fourth one is "You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself." That is followed directly by "Flipping burgers is not beneath your...

Are America's young people being properly prepared to deal with the real world? That is a question well worth asking. Indeed, Charles Sykes addressed this point in his book Dumbing Down Our Kids when he established eleven facts that Americans are failing to teach their children. The first rule is "Life is not fair — get used to it." The fourth one is "You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself." That is followed directly by "Flipping burgers is not beneath your...

In my world, it’s been common to hear the insult, “Were you born in a barn?” Leave a door open and Mother said it. If I walked into school with mud on my feet, the teacher said it. Trying to eat my peas with my table knife would have my sisters saying it. “Born in a barn.” I used to think it was the ultimate insult. Nobody wanted to be known for having been born in a barn. In fact, I can think of only one family that’s openly admitted that their son was born in a barn and, considering...

European Holiday Europeans wonder why Americans have it so good. The answer: We work hard for it while they take vacations. by Irwin M. Stelzer 09/16/2003 12:00:00 AM Irwin M. Stelzer, contributing writer ENVY IS A TERRIBLE THING. Not so much because it makes those whom it afflicts unhappy, or as myth has it, turn green, but because it dulls their analytical skills. At meeting after meeting, in university seminars and in think tanks around the world, envy of America distorts discussions of what accounts for the wealth of nations. Europeans know that America's standard of living exceeds their own...

With an election year on the way, candidates are attending picnics and rallies across the nation in celebration of Labor Day. Too many will denounce the rich and pander to the fears and dissatisfaction many workers feel. Work to many, you see, is a necessary evil. The goal in life is putting in enough time to retire and relax. But that attitude and that goal are contrary to a Christian worldview perspective on work. Christians have a special reason to celebrate Labor Day, which honors the fundamental dignity of workers, for we worship a God who labored to make the...

"Scrooge McDuck Capitalism" I’ve never quite understood the psychology of capitalist bashers. I’ve seen the images of young WTO demonstrators shattering Starbucks windows while wearing Levis and Adidas, drinking Pepsi and coordinating their protests on cell phones. Who do they think will create their favorite goodies if not capitalists? Bureaucrats? Psychic channelers? The People’s Natural Altruistic Collective Manufacturing Co-op and Poetry Center of Berkeley, California? And then there are those economic pundits with a tray of Scrabble tiles lined up behind their names who characterize the collapse of Enron as “a failure of capitalism.” But Enron is not capitalism and...