Easy come, easy go

“Daddy, what was it like back in the day, when America was a world power”? “Well, son, that was the baby boomer generation, before my time even and if I knew the answer to that question, maybe I could tell you, however I can tell you this – folks say it was a lot of hard work”.

This is a futuristic scenario I fear my children and grandchildren will realize. The so-called Greatest Generation fathered the Baby-Boomers and I realize now why my parents made us do chores, told us we had to work part time jobs and instilled values and work ethics in us. The BB’s were a chip off the old block, not the block itself.

I am a part of that aging baby-boomer generation and even though I did not have it easy by today’s standards, I surely grew up under the close direction of my parent’s scrutiny and paddle. I’ve never carried pails of water from the well to the house, churned butter for hours on end, or went without a meal (as is quite evident). I didn’t rise early to chop wood for the stove, walk 5 miles to school without a lunch, then home again on foot to finish my chores before sitting down to a supper of mostly vegetables from the garden, which I helped plant, harvest and preserve.

Instead of breezing through KFC’s for a quick meal, America’s kinfolk butchered their own chickens, dipping them in scalding water, so the feathers could be plucked by hand. They gathered eggs each morning from the hen house, taking the chance of accidentally grabbing a snake from the laying boxes and if they wanted bacon or pork chops, it was available only through the butchering process.

Almost every task required human horsepower and the days of our forefathers were mixed with sweat, hard hard work and long hours of toil. There was literally nothing easy about their daily existence. This is the secret of America’s past strength and the reason for its current weakness.

Today, we live in the disposable world of easy come - easy go. Want something now? No problem! You hungry? There’s hot food available in only 10 minutes (and that’s factoring in the drive and the wait at the fast food window) – or, pop something into the microwave, eat it out of the container and then just throw away the dish. No clean-up or awful labor! What - your car is dirty? Blam! A drive-through carwash will handle that and you can surf your Blackberry or Web-enabled cell phone while you wait…

It’s easy living these days in comparison to what it was when I first made an appearance on this earth…but, this fact and I say fact, because it is, is not obvious to many. Most would truly like to see it even easier. There is no apparent correlation between the honest to God lack of perspiration in today’s society and the amount of cellulite accumulation in our hinder parts.

Third World countries still labor under the conditions our forefathers experienced and for this reason alone, they have superior work ethics, the likes of which many Americans cannot duplicate, at least not without serious effort and lots of perks, bennies, kudos and nurturing.

The fossil-fuel/chemical industry is experiencing a surge of dramatic growth, as the huge profits and voracious oil appetites of Americans make this possible and thus, there are more job opportunities available for skilled plant operators. Some companies are testing 500 or more candidates at a time and still find it difficult to find qualified new employees.

Many do not test well, some have felony convictions, a certain amount cannot pass the drug screen, but the overall reason most do not qualify is they simply do not have the basic knowledge or job history required to get past the first hurdle. The result of this entire job candidate search by chemical companies is they hire experienced job-proven people from other plants, thus causing a migration of experience to and from companies.

The baby-boomer generation is reaching retirement age and the next wave of workers is in many ways not prepared to take the torch. This is my opinion, but also the opinion of the Plant Manager at the company I work for. He told me in a one to one conversation that this next wave of workers, once hired, has no intention of working, has little or no work ethic and simply plan to put in their time doing as little as possible. I see it on a daily basis, both on the job and off. The only time extra effort is expended, is when recreation is involved.

This is juvenile behavior. This is the way 14 year old boys act. This is traditionally expected from young teens and they are expected to grow out it by the age of eighteen. It’s not happening for some reason and they carry this lack of responsibility into their 20’s and 30’s. Add into this equation the reality that baby boomers, which came from large families, barely replaced themselves by having one or two children and we effectively are not replacing, or duplicating ourselves in the work force.

We’ve given them everything, so they could have what we didn’t and now it’s time for them to step up to the plate and start giving back. It’s time to grow up.