A story in last Thursday’s newspaper tells about a mother who is upset that her 30-something daughter is panhandling. Apparently, the daughter has been unable to get pregnant and wants her husband to undergo a $10,000 medical procedure to improve his fertility. Even though the couple has a combined income of $80K per year, they…
If you woke up today and discovered that you had won millions in last evening’s lottery drawing, would you still work? Always a great conversation starter, the number of Americans responding ‘yes’ has declined from over 80% in 1955 to 66% in recent years according to Psychology Today. So what happens when there are people…
The employment landscape in America for 16- to 24-year-olds is abysmal; the worst it’s been in more than 50 years. So if you’ve got a teen or a young adult on your holiday gift list, don’t head to the mall or to your nearest big box retailer. What they need most from you cannot be…
In 1989, 56% of the 16- to 19-year-olds in America were actively participating in the workforce. This meant that an employer hiring a young person in the late eighties and early nineties had better than a one-in-two chance that the young person they were considering understood what it meant to hold a job. In 2012,…
Dylan and Charles have been on summer break for three days and have quite a little enterprise brewing. They’re working hard and making money. This morning, I noticed them at the end of my street with a table and chairs set up. Dylan was pouring liquid refreshment and making change. Charles was busy waving down…
Fans of The Beverly Hillbillies will remember the running joke that Jethro (the most educated of the entire Clampett family) had “made it all the way through the 6th grade.” Yee-Haw! When this series originally aired in the sixties, no one celebrated such a modest accomplishment. Of course you made it through the 6th grade,…
