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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Mike Rowe Gently Smacks Down a Stupid Liberal
We love Mike Rowe. Everything we know about him, we love. We especially love
Mike’s work ethic and his direct way of speaking. You really can’t
misunderstand Mike. Take this, for instance.
Mike Rowe has a foundation and he promotes blue collar trades work. Please
note the name of this scholarship, “Work Ethic Scholarship.” He’s taken
some heat for that.
Mike answered Craig in his patented Mike Rowe way .
Hi Craig, and Happy Sunday!
I’m afraid you’ve overestimated the reach of my foundation, as well as
my ability to motivate people I’ve never met. For the record, I don’t
believe all poor people are lazy, any more than I believe all rich people
are greedy. But I can understand why so many do.
Everyday on the news, liberal pundits and politicians portray the
wealthy as greedy, while conservative pundits and politicians portray the
poor as lazy. Democrats have become so good at denouncing greed, Republicans
now defend it. And Republicans are so good at condemning laziness,
Democrats are now denying it even exists. It’s a never ending dance that
gets more contorted by the day.
A few weeks ago in Georgetown, President Obama accused Fox News of “
perpetuating a false narrative” by consistently calling poor people “lazy.
” Fox News denied the President’s accusation, claiming to have only
criticized policies, not people.
Unfortunately for Fox, The Daily Show has apparently gained access to the
Internet, and after a ten-second Google-search and a few minutes in the edit
bay, John Stewart was on the air with a devastating montage of Fox
personnel referring to the unemployed as “sponges,” “leeches,” “
freeloaders,” and “mooches.”
Over the next few days, the echo chamber got very noisy. The Left howled
about the bias at Fox and condemned the one-percent, while the Right
shrieked about the bias at MSNBC and bemoaned the growing entitlement state.
But through all the howling and shrieking, no one said a word about the
millions of jobs that American companies are struggling to fill right now.
No one talked the fact that most of those jobs don’t require an expensive
four-year degree. And no one mentioned the 1.2 trillion dollars of
outstanding student loans, or the madness of lending money we don’t have to
kids who can’t pay it back, educating them for jobs that no longer exist.
I started mikeroweWORKS to talk about these issues, and shine a light on
a few million good jobs that no one seems excited about. But mostly, I
wanted to remind people that real opportunity still exists for those
individuals who are willing to work hard, learn a skill, and make a
persuasive case for themselves. Sadly, you see my efforts as “right wing
propaganda.” But why? Are our differences really political? Or is it
something deeper? Something philosophical?
You wrote that, “people want to work.” In my travels, I’ve met a lot
of hard-working individuals, and I’ve been singing their praises for the
last 12 years. But I’ve seen nothing that would lead me to agree with your
generalization. From what I’ve seen of the species, and what I know of
myself, most people – given the choice – would prefer NOT to work.
In fact, on Dirty Jobs, I saw Help Wanted signs in every state, even at the
height of the recession. Is it possible you see the existence of so many
unfilled jobs as a challenge to your basic understanding of what makes
people tick?
Last week at a policy conference in Mackinac, I talked to several hiring
managers from a few of the largest companies in Michigan. They all told me
the same thing – the biggest under reported challenge in finding good help,
(aside from the inability to “piss clean,”) is an overwhelming lack of “
soft skills.” That’s a polite way of saying that many applicants don’t
tuck their shirts in, or pull their pants up, or look you in the eye, or say
things like “please” and “thank you.” This is not a Michigan problem –
this is a national crisis. We’re churning out a generation of poorly
educated people with no skill, no ambition, no guidance, and no realistic
expectations of what it means to go to work.
These are the people you’re talking about Craig, and their number grows
everyday. I understand you would like me to help them, but how? I’m not a
mentor, and my foundation doesn’t do interventions. Do you really want me
to stop rewarding individual work ethic, just because I don’t have the
resources to assist those who don’t have any? If I’m unable to help
everyone, do you really want me to help no one?
My goals are modest, and they’ll remain that way. I don’t focus on
groups. I focus on individuals who are eager to do whatever it takes to get
started. People willing to retool, retrain, and relocate. That doesn’t mean
I have no empathy for those less motivated. It just means I’m more
inclined to subsidize the cost of training for those who are.
That shouldn’t be a partisan position, but if it is, I guess I’ll just
have to live with it.
Mike
PS. The Sweat Pledge wasn’t supposed to be partisan either, but it’s
probably annoyed as many people as its inspired. I still sell them for $12,
and the money still goes to mikeroweWORKS. You can get one here, even if you
’re not applying for a scholarship.
PPS. If you’d like Craig, I’ll autograph one for you!
Class act Mike. And we suspect that one left a mark. It should have. |
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